What should a minimum wage be?

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pobox4701

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Just reading the paper this morning,and there is an article claiming that there are 88000 Waste Pickers in SA.One man claims he makes R75 a day.It feeds his wife and kids and keeps him away from crime.While I wish everyone earned more is it not better that he can at Least survive.Now the ANC and their Cosatu Cronies seem to think that a Minimum wage should be R100 per day plus if I am not mistaken.Surely a lot of people could at least be fed at a reasonable minimum wage.
 
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For millions of illiterate people ... R2000 a month!?!?!? No way.
 
Minimum wage basically says that if I can only afford to pay someone <x they're somehow better off starving.
 
minimum should = whatever I am prepared to work for
 
Ideally it there should not be a minimum wage. But with the very high unemployment rate in SA you do need to put something in to prevent people taking advantage, not everyone has the conscience to pay a reasonable salary. I think around R1500 for a full time job? Its hard to live off but then at least you would have more people employed.
 
Sure lets raise minimum wage to R50 per hour, just another couple of million people will be unemployed.
 
hawker said:
There shouldn't be a minimum wage.
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+1
For us to be competitive, removing the minimum wage will mean employers will pay what they think is necessary. The unions should be undone too. what we need to do is start enforcing a hardworking culture, and you get paid for how much you do, not because what the government says you should do.

If you get told you will be paid if you where to pick up x amount of refuse per day, but if you pick up more, then you get paid overtime. Watch how much work these guys will do.
 
Saffers are becoming lazier.....

Simple chores like housekeeping,gardening, pool-cleaning etc should be done by individuals.....
 
of course we should have a minimum wage, but it should differ from sector to sector. There is already a minimum wage for farm workers and domestic workers, but it is really low, around R1000 a month. I don't see in any form or way how you can survive on R1000 a month?
I would like to see the minimum set at around R3500 but then most people would lay off their household workers and it would only contribute to higher unemployment and that is why we need some minimum set by sector.
Israel has very low unemployment and the minimum monthly wage is set at 4000 shekel, about R8000. Australia also have low unemployment and the minimum wage is $570(aus) a week, which is R4200 a week or just over R16,000 a month.
It is quite scary when comparing the earnings of various countries - If you look at Denmark the largest union has negotiated a wage of 14 Euro an hour - whereas the largest union in Ethiopia has negotiated a wage of 13 Euro a month.
wiki has the list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
 
za1 said:
of course we should have a minimum wage, but it should differ from sector to sector. There is already a minimum wage for farm workers and domestic workers, but it is really low, around R1000 a month. I don't see in any form or way how you can survive on R1000 a month?
I would like to see the minimum set at around R3500 but then most people would lay off their household workers and it would only contribute to higher unemployment and that is why we need some minimum set by sector.
Israel has very low unemployment and the minimum monthly wage is set at 4000 shekel, about R8000. Australia also have low unemployment and the minimum wage is $570(aus) a week, which is R4200 a week or just over R16,000 a month.
It is quite scary when comparing the earnings of various countries - If you look at Denmark the largest union has negotiated a wage of 14 Euro an hour - whereas the largest union in Ethiopia has negotiated a wage of 13 Euro a month.
wiki has the list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Click to expand...

A minimum wage does not reduce unemployment.
 
BrokenLink said:
Ideally it there should not be a minimum wage. But with the very high unemployment rate in SA you do need to put something in to prevent people taking advantage, not everyone has the conscience to pay a reasonable salary. I think around R1500 for a full time job? Its hard to live off but then at least you would have more people employed.
Click to expand...

The market determines the wage If there is an over supply of a certain skill set (or lack of any skills), they will get paid less.
 
BrokenLink said:
Ideally it there should not be a minimum wage. But with the very high unemployment rate in SA you do need to put something in to prevent people taking advantage, not everyone has the conscience to pay a reasonable salary. I think around R1500 for a full time job? Its hard to live off but then at least you would have more people employed.
Click to expand...

Devill said:
+1. Only problem is that a lot of people will be exploited that are uninformed etc etc :(
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There will always be those who willing to take advantage but when you think about it that doesn't justify government intervention in the labour market. There are very few people, even in SA, who would be willing to work for less than R1500. Any one who would be willing to pay less would be very lucky to get anyone of any sort of quality. There will always be someone willing to pay more for experience and ability.

So, sure you'll probably always have someone who is doing a really good job for far less than they deserve but thats because there will always be dummies. Legislating to try and stop exploitation is like banning cars because there will always be people who don't bother to look both ways before crossing the road. You're disadvantaging everyone to protect a few.

Large scale exploitation is only going to happen when the majority of employers are willing to exploit people - a situation I don't think we have in SA.
 
za1 said:
of course we should have a minimum wage, but it should differ from sector to sector. There is already a minimum wage for farm workers and domestic workers, but it is really low, around R1000 a month. I don't see in any form or way how you can survive on R1000 a month?
I would like to see the minimum set at around R3500 but then most people would lay off their household workers and it would only contribute to higher unemployment and that is why we need some minimum set by sector.
Israel has very low unemployment and the minimum monthly wage is set at 4000 shekel, about R8000. Australia also have low unemployment and the minimum wage is $570(aus) a week, which is R4200 a week or just over R16,000 a month.
It is quite scary when comparing the earnings of various countries - If you look at Denmark the largest union has negotiated a wage of 14 Euro an hour - whereas the largest union in Ethiopia has negotiated a wage of 13 Euro a month.
wiki has the list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Click to expand...

Hmmm, still, who are you going to let build your cars, people who you have to pay R4000~R16000 a month, or maybe people that work for what ever you willing to pay?

It's not by chance that China, India and Asia in general are experiencing a massive influx of investment. First, we need to get everyone jobs, from there, give all the kids amazing education, after that, you've build the foundation of something that will pretty develop of it's own. ATM, south africa has no tech companies, and the work force ask too much so... we have to decide what we want our economy to focus on... Minimum wage doesn't even make life better. Food prices will go up ten fold, property will go up (since there's more willing buyers), and what does this mean? Well, that R4000 minimum wage will pretty much equal a R1000 salary...
 
za1 said:
of course we should have a minimum wage, but it should differ from sector to sector. There is already a minimum wage for farm workers and domestic workers, but it is really low, around R1000 a month. I don't see in any form or way how you can survive on R1000 a month?
I would like to see the minimum set at around R3500 but then most people would lay off their household workers and it would only contribute to higher unemployment and that is why we need some minimum set by sector.
Israel has very low unemployment and the minimum monthly wage is set at 4000 shekel, about R8000. Australia also have low unemployment and the minimum wage is $570(aus) a week, which is R4200 a week or just over R16,000 a month.
It is quite scary when comparing the earnings of various countries - If you look at Denmark the largest union has negotiated a wage of 14 Euro an hour - whereas the largest union in Ethiopia has negotiated a wage of 13 Euro a month.
wiki has the list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Click to expand...

You say of course we should have a minimum wage and completely fail to explain why.
 
Brawler said:
Sure lets raise minimum wage to R50 per hour, just another couple of million people will be unemployed.
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It'll just make illegal immigrants who will work for R50 per day get the jobs, as they have no legal recourse being here illegally.
 
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