Labour has welcomed the 5% increase in the national minimum wage (NMW), saying it will boost economic growth and bring relief to millions of workers, while calling for a crackdown on defaulting employers.
Farm workers, domestics, general assistants and security guards are set to earn R30.23 an hour effective March 1, after employment & labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth gazetted the new wage this week.
According to the Government Gazette, workers employed on an expanded public works programme are entitled to a minimum wage of R16.62 an hour, while those who have concluded learnership agreements are entitled to minimum allowances of between R455 per week (level 1 to level 2), and R2,654.04 per week (level 5 to level 8).
This positive increase will help protect the value of the NMW and workers’ ability to take care of their families
— Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said the federation welcomed the increase from R28.79 to R30.23 an hour. Inflation hovers at about 3.6%. “This positive increase will help protect the value of the NMW and workers’ ability to take care of their families,” he said.
“It will inject badly needed stimulus into the economy, spurring growth, sustaining and creating jobs. It will provide relief to nearly 6-million workers earning within the NMW range, in particular farm, domestic, construction, retail, transport, hospitality, security and cleaning workers.”
Parks said Cosatu was pleased with the progress it had made with the NMW since it came into effect in 2019 at R20 an hour, with domestic workers then pegged at R15 and farmworkers R18.
“They have both since been equalised with the NMW. The NMW is a far cry from the poverty wages farm and domestic workers were paid a few years ago, at times as little as R6 an hour,” said Parks. It was one of the Ramaphosa-led government’s and the ANC’s most important and transformational achievements, he said.
Parks lashed out at critics of the NMW who had said it would lead to a jobs bloodbath, saying: “Independent research by leading academics has proven this not to be the case. It has had a positive impact on reducing poverty and inequality while boosting economic growth. Other countries which have introduced a NMW include the US, Germany and Brazil, who have had similar positive experiences.
“Beyond the NMW, the government needs to expedite measures to tackle the network and other obstacles to growing the economy, as well as reinforce the various elements of the social wage, such as subsidised public transport, education, housing, municipal services and social security.
“These are critical to fixing the state, unlocking the economy, reducing poverty, creating decent jobs and ensuring workers earn a living wage.”
The government needed to crack down on defaulters, and there needed to be engagements with the Presidency, the National Treasury and the departments of co-operative governance and public works and infrastructure “on a road map to ensure community and Expanded Public Works Programme workers are raised from the incoming amount of R16.62 to the full NMW”.
“It is unacceptable that these workers remain pegged at just under 55% of the NMW. This must now end.”
Business Day
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