11 Nov 2013

Kanye North MP, Mr Kentse Rammidi, has tabled a motion before Parliament requesting government to increase the minimum wage and adopt as policy, the alignment of the minimum wage with the cost of living.

When tabling his motion on November 8, Mr Rammidi said the cost of living was relatively high. Therefore, he said it was high time that government introduced a living wage, since the minimum wage was significantly low.

“If the current combined effects of the recession and high inflation are much felt by those earning better salaries, then what more about those earning a minimum wage,” he questioned. Employees earning within the minimum wage bracket, Mr Rammidi said, could not afford to make ends meet as what they were being paid could hardly sustain their lives. 

“What we are currently doing is creating what is called the working poor, because there is no element of welfare in our minimum wage” he added. Unlike a minimum wage, Mr Rammidi said a living wage afforded individuals an opportunity to also enjoy a decent and equitable standard of living, “since it enables them to also, like any other employees, meet their basic needs such as; food, housing, and clothing, health care costs, transportation costs.”

However, Kanye North MP said individuals who earned less than P1 000, could not afford to cover all their basic costs of living in order to live a dignified life. By the end of Parliament business on Friday, Ngami MP, Mr Taolo Habano, had already resumed his debate on the motion and he shared the same sentiments with Kanye North MP that the current minimum wage rate could not afford one the basic needs of a dignified life. Ends