The living wage ensures that low-income workers can support their families and save for unexpected expenses.
Professor Ines Meyer of the University of Cape Town has stated that, according to the Living Wage South Africa Network (LWSAN), the monthly living wage in 2024 will be R15,000 net.
This number is based on self-reported quality of life of low-income survey participants in South Africa. According to the network, this figure elicited mixed emotions in public.
“A number of people insisted that R15,000 could never cover their monthly obligations,” said Meyer.
“It is hard to make ends meet on R15,000, yet most who work in South Africa earn even less. The legally prescribed national minimum wage comes to only one third of the living wage. If it is difficult to live on R15,000 per month, how shall those whose income is even lower get by?” Meyer asked.
She added that the Living Wage South Africa Network invites the public and companies to examine the situation of these workers who struggle to afford the bare necessities that the rest take for granted.
“This figure affords the opportunity to live a ‘decent’ life in the sense that it gives people a choice over areas of life that matter to them,” Meyer said.
Employers are encouraged to pay the living wage voluntarily, as an act of human decency. According to the World Inequality Database, South Africa’s median pay is R5,417, accounting for the top 36% of earnings.
“We complain about living month-to-month, but many low-earning families survive from morning-to-morning.”
According to Meyer, businesses continue to judge a worker’s worth based on the value of their labour to the corporation, rather than their inherent value as living beings.
“This thinking developed almost a century ago when the world looked very different to today. We sincerely need to question this outdated thinking and create a cultural threshold where compassion for our fellow human aligns with corporate ambition,” said Meyer.
