Aug-Sept 2014 K.indd

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AUG/SEPT 2014 • www.cosatu.org.za

The case for a national MINIMUM WAGE

By Neil Coleman

T he ANC’s 2014 Election Manifesto endorses the principle of introducing a legislated national minimum wage. This concrete intervention is hugely important for millions of South Africans who, despite working long hard hours, still live in poverty. Unfortunately some responses to this announcement suggest a startling level of ignorance and misinformation. Based on Statistics SA fi gures, we can estimate that over half of workers in South Africa earn less than R3500 per month, way below what is required to support a family. This harsh reality

if it ever was. It is the major political question of our time. Addressing this challenge will- rightly- be the dominant theme of the upcoming elections. While a national minimum wage is not a panacea, however it will be an important step forward in responding to these challenges. It will be key to a package of labour market, social protection, and economic measures, aimed at giving concrete meaning to the slogan of ‘a better life for all’. Labour market measures must be designed to eliminate working poverty, radically reduce inequality of incomes, and institutionalise mechanisms

of mass working poverty, is the living legacy of a system deliberately designed to entrench the super exploitation of the African majority, while entrenching minority economic privilege. It is an indictment of our democracy that twenty years on we have failed to make real progress in reversing this unacceptable legacy. While workers remain trapped in poverty, they watch a growing gap with the wealthy and powerful. South Africa has a toxic mix of increased economic inequality, combined with extreme levels of poverty and unemployment. This is no longer simply a social issue,