Nigel Carman, Counsel at Fasken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLegal expert Nigel Carman at law firm Fasken said that households who employ domestic workers need to be especially mindful of this minimum wage, particularly how it is calculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that anyone employing a domestic worker cannot pay less than R115 per day, even if the worker works only four hours or less per day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn addition, employers cannot alter the calculation of this wage, or try to justify paying less than the legislated amount by factoring in expenses like food, training or clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Employment of domestic workers is regulated by the National Minimum Wage Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and Sectoral Determination 7 for the Domestic Worker Sector, 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All these laws stipulate that employers cannot dock domestic workers on their pay by claiming that food and other expenses are factored in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only exception would be for accommodation, but even this carries very specific calculations. First, wages can only be cut by a maximum of 10% for accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, accommodation only qualifies if the room provided is weatherproof, kept in good condition, has at least one window and a door that can be locked, and has a toilet and bath or shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third, the decision to dock pay cannot be unilateral\u2014it must agreed to by both employer and employee and signed in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is common for private household employers to include the cost of food as part of a domestic worker’s pay. Carman says this is not allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The sectoral determination prohibits an employer from receiving any payment directly or indirectly, or withholding any payment from a domestic worker for (specific things),” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- The employment or training of the domestic worker;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The supply of work equipment or tools;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The supply of any work clothing; or<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Any food supplied to the domestic worker while the domestic worker is working or at the workplace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
He added that other parts of labour law contained in the BCEA\u2014related to hours of work, overtime, and various forms of leave, among others\u2014are also still applicable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BCEA’s current earnings threshold is R254,371, which will likely increase in 2025. This is the limit at which the Act automatically applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Employers who pay workers less than this (roughly R21,200 a month)\u2014which would include minimum-wage domestic workers\u2014are legally required to follow these laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The laws regulate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Ordinary hours of work;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Overtime;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Compressed working weeks;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Averaging of hours of work;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Meal intervals;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Daily and weekly rest periods;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Sunday pay;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pay for night work; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pay for work on public holidays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Domestic workers are also eligible for UIF and should be registered for such. The UIF applies to any worker earning over R1,000 a month, so a minimum-wage domestic worker qualifies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With UIF, employers must deduct 1% of each employee\u2019s remuneration and match this amount, totalling 2% of the employee\u2019s remuneration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Legal experts warn that private households employing a domestic worker in South Africa can’t make deductions or find creative workarounds to paying a fair wage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[10550,12939,18560],"class_list":["post-811758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-domestic-worker","tag-fasken","tag-national-minimum-wage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811758","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=811758"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812342,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811758\/revisions\/812342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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