'Freeze minimum wage to save jobs' - Labour expert
A labour law expert believes that the national minimum wage should be frozen for the next two years to establish positive employment prospects.
The minimum wage will be increased from R27.58 to R28.79 per hour from 1 March. This is a 4.4% increase from the current minimum wage.
The new minimum wage sets a new base in all labour sectors, including farmworkers and domestic workers.
Labour Lawyer Micheal Bagraim said balancing the national minimum wage is always an incredibly difficult task.
“The Commission set up in terms of the legislation very carefully tries to assess whether the national minimum wage will be discriminatory against employees and whether it will in turn create more unemployment,” Bagraim said.
Bagraim added that the Department of Labour does not want to create a situation where employers either pay below the minimum wage because they cannot afford it or where they bring the salary down to the current minimum wage.
“For instance, in the domestic sector, many thousands of domestic workers have lost their jobs because of the national minimum wage. Over and above this, equally, many thousands of employers of domestic workers are just ignoring the minimum wage and paying what they want to pay because they can't afford the minimum wage.
“The domestic workers are always too scared to report this because they will probably lose their jobs. We also have the opposite happening, where some employers would pay more but have the impression that it is fine to pay the minimum wage even though it is minimal.
“We look forward to the day when unemployment is at a minimum, and we can go back to the system of ‘willing buyer willing seller’,” Bagraim said.
ALSO READ:
