{"id":450395,"date":"2020-11-20T13:58:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T11:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=450395"},"modified":"2020-11-20T13:58:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T11:58:27","slug":"higher-south-african-minimum-wages-proposed-for-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/450395\/higher-south-african-minimum-wages-proposed-for-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher South African minimum wages proposed for 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Minimum Wage Commission has published its annual review of the national minimum, including a proposed increase for domestic workers and other employees.<\/p>\n<p>The National Minimum Wage Act, which was officially introduced in 2018, requires the commission review the minimum wage on an annual basis &#8211; soliciting comment from both experts and the public.<\/p>\n<p>The three\u00a0 key findings of the commission are as follows;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The majority of Commissioners recommend that the national minimum wage should be<strong> increased by 1.5% above inflation<\/strong> as measured by the consumer price index (CPI);<\/li>\n<li>The majority also recommend that the <strong>minimum for farmworkers be aligned<\/strong> with the national minimum wage in 2021;<\/li>\n<li>The minimum for domestic workers be <strong>gradually increased<\/strong> to equal the national minimum wage by 2022.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Annual adjustment\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The majority of commissioners proposed\u00a0 that the national minimum wage be increased by the rate of inflation plus 1.5%.<\/p>\n<p>The inflation rate, measured by CPI, as of September 2020 was 3% so the adjustment should be on the order of 4.5%, the commission said.<\/p>\n<p>The national minimum wage was originally set at R20 an hour in 2018. In 2019, the Commission had only just been established and was therefore unable to undertake a full annual review.<\/p>\n<p>At the time it recommended that the national minimum wage increase at the rate of inflation for the poorest decile of households the year to March 2020, or 3.8%.<\/p>\n<p>The national minimum wage therefore increased from R20.00 to R20.76 an hour from March 2020. A 4.5% increase would effectively see the minimum wage rise by around a further 93 cents to <strong>R21.69.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In making this adjustment, the commission has to consider a range of factors including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Inflation, the cost of living and the need to retain the value of the national minimum wage;<\/li>\n<li>Wage levels and collective bargaining outcomes;<\/li>\n<li>Gross domestic product (GDP);<\/li>\n<li>Productivity;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ability of employers to carry on their businesses successfully;<\/li>\n<li>The operation of small, medium and micro enterprises and new enterprises;<\/li>\n<li>The likely impact on employment or employment creation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Minimum-wage.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Equalisation\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The commission said that ideally, a national minimum wage should be applicable to all employees across the country and irrespective of sector.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid excessive disruption, however, the Minimum Wage Act established lower minimums for farm and domestic workers, with a process of gradual equalisation to the national minimum wage over time.<\/p>\n<p>Section 6 of the Act mandates the Commission to make recommendations to the Minister of Employment and Labour on this topic.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018 farmworkers were entitled to a minimum wage of R18 per hour and domestic workers to a minimum wage of R15 per hour.\u00a0 The minimum wages of farmworkers and domestic workers increased in March 2020 to R18.68 and R15.57 respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Thee recommendation of the commission is that the minimum wages of farmworkers be equalized with the national minimum wage with effect from the date of the overall adjustment in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The commission recommended that the minimum wage of domestic workers be increased to 88% of the national minimum wage in 2021 and to 100% in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>This adjustment of the minimum wage for domestic workers and farmworkers would amount to an increase of about <strong>R450 per month for a domestic worker<\/strong> and about <strong>R350 per month for a farmworker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/450009\/south-africas-domestic-workers-score-constitutional-court-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa\u2019s domestic workers score Constitutional Court victory<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Minimum Wage Commission has published its annual review of the national minimum, including a proposed increase for domestic workers and other employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":314904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-450395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450395","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=450395"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450415,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450395\/revisions\/450415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}