On 1 March, South Africa’s new minimum hourly wage rate came into force, rising 9.6% from R23.19 to R25.42 per hour. This rise is above consumer price inflation (CPI) of 6.9%. But with food inflation rates of 13.4% in January 2023, which affects poor people disproportionately, labour activists at the Casual Workers’ Advice Office (CWAO) have called the increase a “political attack on the working class”.
From 2022, the minimum wage for domestic and farm workers is the same as for general workers. Workers on the expanded public works programme (EPWP) now receive an hourly wage of R13.97 per hour worked.
“Many EPWP workers have been deployed for the past 14 years as casual street cleaning workers in townships, hired for just two days a week each, keeping the townships clean in the absence of a municipal workforce which has been whittled away by austerity budgets over the years. This means that in reality, there are many EPWP workers who earn just R856 per month for doing this valuable work,” said CWAO in a statement.
But many workers will not feel the effect of the increase, despite it being above CPI. According to the CWAO, many minimum wage workers are not given enough hours for a full month’s work.
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