Minimum Wage in in South Africa – A bill is passed setting it at 20 rand an hour, about $1.45

On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a national minimum wage bill into law. The National Minimum Wage Act sets minimum wage at 20 rand an hour (about $1.45 an hour). South Africa’s average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is currently about $10,872.

Proponents of the bill have touted benefits this move will bring to South Africa’s mixed bag of economic indicators. For instance, between 2008 and 2017, South Africa’s average real wage growth was only about 2.4 percent, lagging behind many of its sub-Saharan African peers. In addition, South Africa was recently ranked the world’s most unequal country, with a Gini coefficient of about 0.63, according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators.

Opponents cite the pressure this bill will places on the already high unemployment rate the country faces, especially among black South Africans. Employers may also struggle to meet the minimum wage standards.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Africa in the news: Minimum wage bill passes in South Africa and Addis Ababa leads in air traffic