"How The New Minimum Wage Will Affect The Agricultural Sector", 17 Jan 2018

From May 1, 2018, all workers in South Africa will be subject to a national minimum wage –– R18 per hour in the agricultural sector. The national minimum wage was one of the strategies proposed to combat wage inequality...The agricultural sector has shed 109,000 jobs so far this year, and was 71,000 jobs down from the same quarter in 2016...The question is: will the imposition of a minimum wage have any effect on inequality in the sector? The agricultural sector has had a minimum wage, introduced via sectoral determination 13, since 2008. This minimum wage was increased by 17 percent following the De Doorns unrest in Western Cape in 2012...Although it is almost impossible to predict whether there will be job losses in the agricultural sector due to the implementation of an R18 per hour minimum wage, the fact that this will mean a wage increase of 17 percent in 2018 –– against the backdrop of huge job losses when the minimum wage was introduced ––makes job losses a fair assumption...The effect of the national minimum wage on the agricultural sector has the potential to be dire. Only time will tell. Don't we owe a vulnerable sector more than subjecting them to such uncertainty?