MINIMUM WAGE VIOLATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Haroon Bhorat, Ravi Kanbur and Natasha Mayet

No 126534, Working Papers from Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management

Abstract: Minimum wage legislation is central in South African policy discourse, with both strong support and strong opposition. The validity of either position depends, however, on the effectiveness of minimum wage enforcement. Using detailed matching of occupational, sectoral and locational codes in the 2007 Labour Force Survey to the gazetted minimum wages, this paper presents, we believe for the first time, estimates of minimum wage violation in South Africa. Our results give considerable cause for concern. Minimum wage violation is South Africa is disturbingly high. We find that 45% of covered workers get paid wages below the legislated minimum, whilst the average depth of shortfall is 36% of the minimum wage. Around this average, violation is most prevalent in the Security, Forestry and Farming Sectors. We hope that the quantifications in this paper will provide a more solid basis for discussion of minimum wage levels and their enforcement in South Africa.

Keywords: Labor and Human Capital; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/126534/files/Cornell-Dyson-wp1104.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Minimum wage violation in South Africa (2012)
Working Paper: Minimum Wage Violation in South Africa (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cudawp:126534

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.126534

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().