{"id":317882,"date":"2019-05-20T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=317882"},"modified":"2019-05-28T14:06:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T12:06:21","slug":"this-is-how-much-south-africans-pay-their-domestic-worker-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/317882\/this-is-how-much-south-africans-pay-their-domestic-worker-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how much South Africans pay their domestic worker in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SweepSouth, a <span class=\"st\">digital-booking cleaning service<\/span>, has published its annual <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sweepsouth.com\/2019\/05\/20\/report-on-pay-and-working-conditions-for-domestic-work-in-south-africa-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report <\/a><\/strong>for 2019, showing how much domestic workers in South Africa earn right now.<\/p>\n<p>The report is based on the responses of more than 1,300 domestic workers and offers an in-depth look at the conditions of the industry.<\/p>\n<p>The average respondent in the report was:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A single mother (71% of respondents) who is the main breadwinner of their household (79%);<\/li>\n<li>She usually supports four people including herself, on an income between R2,001 and R3,000 a month with no additional support from government grants (64%);<\/li>\n<li>She typically works between six and seven hours a day (43%) and travels an average of between one and two hours a day by taxi (43%);<\/li>\n<li>The highest educational qualification she has received is a matric (55%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Expenses-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-317904 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Expenses-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Expenses-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Expenses-1-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Expenses-1-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stats SA\u2019s latest unemployment <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/317296\/15000-domestic-workers-lost-their-jobs-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">data<\/a> <\/strong>showed that around 15,000 domestic workers lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2019. The stats body&#8217;s data showed that around one million domestic workers are employed in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The decline in domestic worker jobs over this period is significant because it lines up with the introduction of the new National Minimum Wage which came into effect on 1 January 2019.<\/p>\n<p>While the NMW is set at R20 per hour, domestic workers were one of three category exemptions, where the minimum was set at R15 per hour.<\/p>\n<p>In line with these changes, SweepSouth found that there was an increase in the average national domestic worker wage to <strong>R2,699 per month.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that the majority of respondents report that they earn between R2,001 and R3,000 a month means that it is probable that most employers are complying with the minimum wage regulations,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>More worrying is that a combined 41% of respondents indicated that they are earning less than R2,000 a month &#8211; well below minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>Just 16% indicated that they earn more than R4,000 a month.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Earnings.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-317906 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Earnings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Earnings.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Earnings-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Earnings-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The survey showed that on a minimum wage of R2,699 per month means that many domestic workers cannot afford to pay their monthly expenses.<\/p>\n<p>The results shows that the average domestic worker spent:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>R115 a month on data\/\u00e1irtime;<\/li>\n<li>R1,100 a month on food;<\/li>\n<li>R279 per month on electricity;<\/li>\n<li>R455 a month on transport;<\/li>\n<li>R1,136 a month on rent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Therefore it is imperative that the minimum wage be raised in order for domestic workers to be able to cover their basic living costs,&#8221; SweepSouth said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With only 49% of domestic workers currently being able to save anything at the end of the month, the majority who are able to do so save less than R200 per month (21% of respondents).&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/317182\/heres-where-the-rand-could-go-after-ramaphosa-chooses-his-cabinet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here\u2019s where the rand could go after Ramaphosa chooses his cabinet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SweepSouth, a digital-booking cleaning service, has published its annual report for 2019, showing how much domestic workers in South Africa earn right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":260913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,11041],"class_list":["post-317882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-sweepsouth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317882"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319860,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317882\/revisions\/319860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}