Solidarity condemns new minimum wage
8 February 2022
Solidarity today strongly condemned the new minimum wage of R23,19 per hour, as announced by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi. According to Solidarity, Minister Nxesi would have had a much more positive effect on the labour market and the economy if he had scrapped the minimum wage altogether.
“It is inconceivable that the country with the highest unemployment on the planet continues to trample upon people's chances of employment. While the economy is still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of Covid-19 and the implementation of some of the most stringent lockdown measures in the world, it is absurd to increase our already irrational minimum wage by more than the inflation rate,” said Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute.
“The labour market is like a ladder that one climbs throughout your career. We would like everyone to reach the top of that ladder. However, the minimum wage does not propel anyone to a higher rung on the ladder. It only prevents those standing on the floor from getting the chance of climbing onto the bottom few rungs of the ladder,” Du Buisson explained. “A further worrying consequence of the of a higher minimum wage could also be an increase in xenophobia and illegal labour practices. The Minister is making it increasingly expensive for employers to legally employ South Africans, which automatically creates an incentive for some employers to make use of the services of illegal immigrants instead.”
Solidarity contends that by exempting itself from the provisions, the government itself demonstrates the counter-productiveness and harmfulness of the minimum wage.