NATIONAL NEWS - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says it will take at least two years to bring wages, determined by sectoral agreements, on par with a proposed national minimum wage.
Ramaphosa on Wednesday announced that an agreement, still to be signed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), has been reached on a proposed minimum wage of R3,500 per month, to be implemented from May next year.
But Ramaphosa says government recognises this amount is nowhere near an acceptable living wage.
Government wants to see at least 6.6 million workers earn a minimum wage of R3,500 per month.
But at least 4.8 million of them are covered by sectoral agreements which prescribe their own basic minimums for at least 17 categories of workers, including farm and domestic workers.
