In January 2013, South Africa was praised by the International Labour Organisation as one of the few countries in the world to legislate minimum wages and rest periods for its estimated 1.1m domestic workers.1 15.8% of all South African jobs are in domestic work – a huge number. More often than not a domestic employee is the single breadwinner and her wage will support an entire family.2

While our legislative framework is indeed praiseworthy, it’s important to bear in mind that firstly, minimum wages are set very low. Secondly, minimum wages in reality often become the maximum wage that employers pay, as we have recently seen in the case of seasonal farm workers. The justification for low minimum wages is that higher minimum wages would endanger these jobs. That might be so. Nevertheless, compare the minimum monthly wage of R1,746 for full time domestic work (in an urban area for the 2013 period) with the R4,600 that is considered the monthly minimum living level for a 4-5 person household.

Paying your domestic worker a living wage is the directest way to supporting a local job that boosts our economy.

1 Some estimates are as high as 1.5 million jobs in the domestic work sector.

2 I'm saying 'her' because 75% of all domestic workers are women.