Domestic workers forum says minimum wage increase not enough
The South African Domestic Workers Forum says while it welcomes the 5% increase to the minimum wage, it feels the adjustment could have been higher.
" We would have recommended an increase of between six and 8%, not only because we feel like the rate is not enough, but simply because the sector has been marginalised and has been underpaid for many years," says the forum’s chairperson, Lindiwe Shibambo.
The National Minimum Wage is going up next month, from R28.79 to R30.23.
Farm workers will be among those affected.
For domestic workers, Shibambo says it's not enough with the current cost of living.
The group - a non-profit that supports domestic workers - says the government needs to take a more aggressive approach to address years of underpayment. Shibambo explains that challenges in the sector worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic because of job losses and reduced pay.
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"The COVID impact is still being felt by domestic workers because employment in that particular space declined it, it's shrinking, and you're looking at foreign workers that are coming from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, who are also looking to become domestic workers in South Africa, offering the same service perhaps at a lower rate.
“And we are also looking at skills development, lack of skills development and lack of knowledge.”
However, labour lawyer Michael Bagraim says when compared to other countries with similar economies, some don't have a minimum wage or an inspectorate to enforce it.
"But I'll tell you where they're doing better than us. They have a very good informal economy, and that informal economy is soaked up, probably anything up to 30% of their workforce.
“We don't have people who have an entrepreneurial spirit, and we don't encourage it, and we, in fact, discourage it by actually taking every informal job and then regulating them out of the park."
