The high cost of ignoring minimum wage

What kind of a country are we living in, when nearly half (46%) of domestic workers still earn less than the legally prescribed minimum wage of R27.58 per hour, or R220.64 per day?

In this time of spiralling inflation, even those amounts are pathetically small.

Yet, there will be many angry voices saying “at least these people have jobs”.

That may be true, but how far below a living wage does a person have to be before that person is a slave?

Many domestic workers get few or no benefits, but have comparatively huge expenses on commuting just to get to their places of work.

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How many of them work for employers who are well off and drive in luxury cars to their jobs?

There will be the people who cry that they cannot afford the minimum wage.

If that is the case, then do your own housework. Simple.

South Africa, whether we like to admit it or not, has been built on the back of the exploitation of labour.

And that exploitation, if it continues, will only serve to deepen the well of bitterness that the have-nots drink from every day.

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That bitterness will breed a rage which will destroy us one day.