[imagesource: Alice Morrison]

Domestic work is one of the largest employment sectors in South Africa. At the start of 2020, just over one million domestic workers were employed nationwide – a number that decreased significantly over the course of the national lockdown.

Many of those who remained employed, experienced significant salary cuts. 

The private nature of the work makes it hard to regulate, which means that domestic workers are often denied the basic rights that other workers are entitled to in more public employment, like compensation for a workplace injury or death or illness contracted in the workplace.

For employers of domestic workers, the conversation about how much to pay them and what is considered a fair salary is an endless one, that doesn’t often take the above into account.

To assist in mitigating the problem of an unregulated, often low salary, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has published the new minimum wage for South African domestic workers.

The change, which was gazetted on Monday, February 8, mandates that the minimum hourly wage will increase to R19,09, up from R15,57 per hour in 2020.

These changes come into effect as of March 1, 2021.

However, in the coming years, the hourly wage for domestic work is set to equalise, as reported by BusinessTech. This means that the minimum wage would apply to all employees across the country and irrespective of sector.

The current national minimum wage sits at R21,69.

If that seems high, it’s worth heading to ‘Living Wage’, a website which gives employers the chance to see whether or not they’re paying their employees enough to constitute a living wage.

If you think about what you’re actually paying for, it makes sense that the minimum wage should be higher for domestic workers.

Yes, you’re paying to have your house cleaned and/or your children taken care of, but you’re also paying for time – the time that you don’t spend doing those things, is time spent elsewhere.

As the old adage goes – ‘time is money’.

So the real question is – how much is your time worth?

[source:govgazette&businesstech]