As the deadline to comment on the proposed Fair Pay Bill closes, debate is increasingly shifting from whether pay transparency is desirable to how the proposed changes may alter hiring and salary negotiations in practice.
The latest version of the draft Employment Equity Amendment Bill, 2026 – commonly referred to as the Fair Pay Bill – was published in Government Gazette No. 54594 on 30 April 2026. The deadline to comment is Friday, 29 May.
At its core, the Bill seeks to break what supporters describe as a cycle of inherited wage inequality: employers relying on a candidate’s previous salary to determine future pay.
But employment law specialists say the changes would do more than prohibit requests for payslips.
According to Imraan Mahomed, a director in the employment law practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH), and Lee Masuku, a senior associate at CDH, the updated Bill introduces three central reforms: a prohibition on salary history enquiries, mandatory pay transparency, and an explicit right for employees to discuss remuneration.
The updated version also introduces and refines several definitions that did not appear, or appeared differently, in earlier drafts. These include “current remuneration”, “past remuneration”, “remuneration information”, and “remuneration range”, while broadening the meaning of “enquiring” to include attempts to gather information directly or indirectly, either personally or through an agent.
CDH said the revised wording appears intended to...
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