To reduce working hours in South Africa, it would take a scenario where all workers earn a high enough wage per hour that allows them to work less but maintain a liveable total take-home pay package every month.
This is according to Development economist Dieter Von Fintel from Stellenbosch University, who told BusinessTech that this is generally the case in wealthier countries with shorter working hours than in South Africa.
“The average worker in a rich country can afford to work less but still be paid a good salary at the end of the month, without productivity is not necessarily negatively affected,” he said.
“We [South Africa] need to think of a scenario where firms pay minimum wages that are much higher than they currently are, and that would allow workers to earn enough to work significantly shorter weeks,” he added.
Von Fintel further explained that South African workers earn very little per hour, so they want to work longer hours to increase their monthly total take-home pay.
For instance, it may not be worth it for a worker to pay a high taxi fare and then work too few hours per day to be able to pay the taxi fare to get home and still put food on the table.
At a low wage rate, workers are incentivised to work longer shifts to make it worthwhile to accept a job—to be able to afford something as simple as transport costs, which do not go down if workers work fewer hours per day.
Currently, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) is R27.58 per hour. For a worker putting in an 8-hour day, this translates to about R220.64 daily and R4,633.44 monthly, assuming a 21-day work month.
Research from the PMBEJD Group shows that, as of February 2025, this wage falls short of a liveable total take-home pay.
The research shows that the current minimum wage leaves a worker about R2,000 short each month when considering the most basic household expenses, such as transportation, electricity, and food.
“If work hours are capped/reduced for these workers without increasing hourly wages, it may not be worth their while to choose to work at all.
“For this reason, minimum wage legislation could be an important complement to capping work hours,” said Von Fintel.
Interestingly, while there is no set ‘livable’ wage workers need to earn at the same time working hours are reduced, the PMBEJD Group’s data gives a good idea.
The data, based on their Basic Nutritional Food Basket for a family of four in major South African cities, shows that even after accounting for essentials, a person earning the minimum wage will struggle to meet the basic living costs.
The data reveals that a wage of R6,633.02 per month is the minimum necessary for dignity and functionality. This works out to R301.50 per day or an NMW of R37.69 per hour.
Von Fintel added that the evidence suggests that in many sectors, minimum wages, as they have been implemented in South Africa, did not destroy employment but reduced work hours.
However, he cautioned that we [South Africa] need to know more about “how far” we can increase minimum wages to ensure that firms can afford to create jobs while making it worthwhile for workers to work fewer hours at higher pay.
“We are unsure whether such a large jump in minimum wages could have adverse effects on job loss. Current evidence suggests that minimum wages are fairly benign to employment in South Africa.
“However, they are currently set at low levels where workers may not be able to afford work-hour reductions,” he added.
Von Fintel also noted that, organisationally, collective bargaining councils already limit work weeks to levels lower than the legislated maximum in various sectors.
However, this does not cover all workers. The BCEA would have to be changed to adapt it to uncovered sectors.
