South Africa Raises Minimum Hourly Wage by 8.5% to $1.46

South Africa’s minimum hourly wage will increase by 8.5% to 27.58 rand ($1.46) from next month.

The raise, announced in the Government Gazette on Friday, outstrips labor union officials’ inflation expectation of 5.9% for 2024, but is less than the 11% average increase in food prices last year, data from statistics office show.

While the minimum wage was introduced in January 2019 to try and reduce the pay gap in one of the world’s most unequal societies, the latest increment will be insufficient to raise the living standards of a large part of the working population who spend ...