What the new Living Wage means to low earning South Africans

Recently, the Living Wage South Africa Network (LWSAN) announced its latest Living Wage figure for 2026. The base amount of R20,000 net per month sparked different debates.

One publication reported that the living wage is the minimum amount the ‘average’ South African should be earning. “Most people consider themselves as the ‘average’ person and some insisted that R20,000 could never cover their monthly obligations,” says Ines Meyer, spokesperson for LWSAN.

However, says Meyer, the Living Wage actually applies to the country’s lowest paid earners. “We want the public and employers to consider their plight as they struggle to afford the bare essentials the rest of us take for granted,” she says. “If you feel you cannot cover your monthly costs on an income of R20,000 imagine what it must be like for those who earn less.”

It is also important to highlight that the Living Wage is calculated based on the self-reported responses of low-earning survey participants.

What is the Living Wage?

The Living Wage is remuneration that is sufficient for the country’s lowest earning workers to realise a decent life for themselves and their families, with enough left over for savings or to cover unforeseen emergencies. “We say this affords them the opportunity to live a ‘decent’ life in the sense that they can realise what for them is a good life,” says Meyer.

This stands in direct contrast to the national minimum wage that employers must pay their workers by law, but which seldom makes it possible to cover the basic necessities for survival.

The Living Wage is not a legal requirement. Instead, employers are encouraged to pay the Living Wage voluntarily, as an act of human decency.

How the lowest paid live

Of course, many South Africans earning a monthly salary could not keep up with their debts on an income of even R20,000 per month.

For them, earning a ‘living’ means income that allows them to meet their expenses and contributions while having enough left over for the small luxuries that make life more enjoyable.

The picture changes significantly for low-income workers who earn a daily or weekly wage.

“We complain about living month-to-month but many low-earning families survive from morning-to-morning,” says Meyer.

At fulltime employment, the national minimum wage of R30.23 per hour pays less than R6,000 per month. It amounts to just R70,700 per year - if they can work enough hours!

With this, they must cover their family’s monthly travel, food and energy requirements, medical expenses, possibly accommodation, and more.

Even relief programmes, like basic free electricity, are restricted and require an applicant to be identified as an indigent. “So, you’d have to remain in poverty just to qualify for them,” says Meyer.

“Think about how difficult it is to make ends meet on just R20,000 per month, then try to imagine the life of someone earning one third of that,” says Meyer.

It’s not hard to see what a tremendous difference R20,000 could make to their existence and their dignity as humans.

Unfortunately, employers continue to measure a worker’s worth by the value their labour offers the company, not their inherent value as living beings.

“We sincerely need to change this thinking and create a cultural threshold where enabling those in our employ a decent life supersedes corporate ambition,” says Meyer.

ENDS