46% of SA domestic workers earn less than legal minimum wage, survey reveals

Nearly half (46%) of domestic workers in South Africa still earn less than the legally prescribed minimum wage of R27.58 per hour. This amounts to R220.64 per day if the person works for eight hours.

This is one of the findings of SweepSouth’s annual survey on the compensation and working conditions of domestic workers.

SweepSouth recommends, among other things, stricter enforcement of labour laws.

However, Merriam Mahlangu, author of Brightness of Diamonds Through Soil, in which she shares how she built her career from domestic worker to professional communication officer, cautions that this must be treated with sensitivity as it can lead to unintended consequences.

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SweepSouth is an online agency that connects employers with domestic workers.

A total of 5 600 domestic workers participated in the survey on which the report is based.

This is the seventh year that SweepSouth has published this report.

It shows that 98% of domestic workers in the country are women, and they earn an average of R33.35 per hour. This translates to R266.82 for an eight-hour day. The few men in the industry earn slightly more at R34.24 per hour or R273.92 for an eight-hour workday.

Although these average wages are higher than the minimum wage, the report shows that 46% of workers still earn less than that.

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The median income, the point where half earn more and half earn less, is R5 242 per month for those who work at least five days a week for SweepSouth and R3 404 for the rest. The minimum wage on the same basis is R4 413 per month.

Domestic workers’ salaries

When distinguishing between domestic workers based on their specific tasks, those who care for children and cook do better, with monthly median incomes of R3 464 and R3 463 respectively.

Gardeners fare the worst at R3 128 per month.

Domestic workers who care for the elderly have median earnings of R3 324, and cleaners earn R3 348 per month.

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Those who work full time for one person do better than piece workers with different employers. They earn R3 702 and R3 250 respectively.

Employers in the Western Cape pay significantly better (R3 557) than those in Gauteng (R3 291). In the rest of the country, things are even worse for domestic workers with median incomes of R2 659 per month for working at least five days a week.

Inflation hitting hard

Although their income had increased by about 5% since the previous year, it has not kept pace with their expenses, which have increased by 15% during the same period.

Housing costs have become much more expensive in the past year, with a cost increase of 17%.

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Transportation costs 10% more and electricity 8% more. Respondents spend 38% of their income on accommodation and 37% on food. Transportation consumes 18% of it, and electricity 11%.

Their expenses exceed their income by about R870 each month.

The pressure on domestic workers is immense considering that more than eight out of every 10 are breadwinners. Nearly seven of every 10 households have only one income, and each household consists of at least four people.

Employers under pressure

The survey shows that more than a fifth of domestic workers lost their jobs in the past year.

A quarter of them were dismissed because households could no longer afford their services and 34% because the employer moved to another place.

Independent economist Elize Kruger says that with real wage increases not keeping pace with inflation, higher living costs, and rising interest rates, the average household in SA (the employers of domestic workers) has been under strain.

She says that pressure has been passed on to domestic workers, who can be seen as one of the “luxury” budget items for a household.

“To make budgets work, spending on domestic workers is typically reduced, which could mean that a domestic worker’s days are reduced, for example, from a full-time opportunity to just a few days a week, or in other cases households have completely done away with domestic workers and taken on that work themselves.”

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Kruger says domestic workers play an important role in the economy, with 843 000 employed in SA in the second quarter of 2024, accounting for 5.1% of the total employment of 16.65 million.

“However, there are still 16% or 161 000 fewer domestic workers employed than in the first quarter of 2020, pre-Covid,” she adds.

“The difficult circumstances that domestic workers are currently experiencing are therefore still directly related to the impact of Covid on the economy in 2020 and the slow economic growth in the years that followed.”

Mahlangu points out that the survey shows that only 37% of domestic workers are South Africans. The majority (59%) come from Zimbabwe.

The author, who now provides assistance to the workers through her non-profit organisation Help One Helper to further their studies, says many are undocumented immigrants who earn less than the minimum wage.

Domestic workers are afraid to report their employers, she says. They live in fear that their employers will dismiss them. Some are not registered for unemployment insurance.

She cautions that enforcement of labour laws must be treated with sensitivity.

“The reality is that the more employers are pressured to comply with the labour laws, the more domestic workers lose employment.”

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here