The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data published by Stats SA shows that domestic worker wages in South Africa are tracking even further below core inflation in the country, indicating that household employees are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living in the country.
Headline CPI for November 2022 tracked at 7.4%, down marginally from 7.6% in October. Core inflation – excluding food and fuels – was higher at 5.0% for the month.
The basket of goods and services tracked by Stats SA to measure inflation changes from time to time, and November’s basket included domestic worker wages. Domestic worker wages are also tracked in March, June, and September.
Worryingly, domestic worker wage inflation was only 3.8% year on year. This rate is far below headline CPI and core CPI and shows that wages paid to domestic workers in the country are not keeping up with both headline and core inflation.
Wage inflation was tracked at 3.5% in June (versus headline CPI at 7.4%, core inflation at 4.4%), 2.9% in March (vs headline CPI at 5.9%, core inflation at 3.8%), and 3.8% in September (vs headline CPI at 7.5% and core inflation at 4.7%).
Domestic worker wages have consistently been falling short of core inflation by 0.9 percentage points in 2022, but this has now expanded to 1.2 percentage points as core inflation inches ever higher.
Domestic workers are already low-earners in South Africa, with salary data from SweepSouth in August showing that the average worker takes home just R2,997 per month.
Wages for the sector were only recently brought in line with the national minimum wage in 2022.
From 1 March 2022, the National Minimum Wage for each ordinary hour worked increased from R21.69 to R23.19. For domestic workers, the increase in minimum wage was much larger, from a rate of R19.09 per hour – 88% of the national minimum wage in 2021. BusinessTech