Browsing by Subject "Wages"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    An analysis of formal sector employment in South Africa: Its implications for poverty and future economic strategies
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Abedian, Iraj; Schneier, Steffen
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    Open Access
    Association of Child Maltreatment with South African Adults’ Wages: Evidence from the Cape Area Panel Study
    (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2018-09-07) Zheng, Xiaodong; Fang, Xiangming; Fry, Deborah A; Ganz, Gary; Casey, Tabitha; Hsiao, Celia; Ward, Catherine L
    Child maltreatment is a prevalent public health problem in both developed and developing countries. While many studies have investigated the relationship between violence against children and health of the victims, little is known about the long term economic consequences of child maltreatment, especially in developing countries. Using data from the Cape Area Panel Study, this paper applies Heckman selection models to investigate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and young adults’ wages in South Africa. The results show that, on average, any experience of physical or emotional abuse during childhood is associated with a later 12% loss of young adults’ wages. In addition, the correlation between physical abuse and economic consequence (14%) is more significant than the relationship between emotional abuse and wages (8%) of young adults; and the higher the frequency of maltreatment, the greater the associations with wages. With respect to gender differences, wage loss due to the experience of childhood maltreatment is larger for females than males. Specifically, males’ wages are more sensitive to childhood emotional abuse, while females’ wages are more likely to be affected by childhood physical abuse. These results emphasize the importance of prioritizing investments in prevention and intervention programs to reduce the prevalence of child maltreatment and to help victims better overcome the long-term negative effect.
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    Deconstructing profitability under apartheid: 1960-1989
    (Taylor & Francis, 2014) Nattrass, Nicoli
    This paper discusses trends in South African profitability between 1960 and 1989 (the last peak year before the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990). It is argued that where distributional conflict is a persistent feature of the economic historical landscape, or is claimed to be of central importance (as is the case with regard to the radical ‘cheap labour’ theory of capital accumulation and growth under apartheid), examining trends in profitability and the underlying forces behind it may be of some assistance to economic historians. Trends in the profit rate can be linked to institutional transformation, and deconstructing the profit rate can help isolate the relative importance of the profit share and productivity in shaping the rate of return for capitalists. The empirical analysis finds that there were different economic factors at work behind trends in profitability between 1960 and 1989, and that Marxist claims about cheap labour being the basis for supposedly rising profitability and growth under apartheid are not supported by the data. Rather, the paper highlights the role of falling capital productivity as the key determinant of falling profitability – developments which suggests that investment in the late apartheid period was misdirected in significant ways.
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    Employment guarantee or minimum income?: workfare and welfare in developing countries
    (Inderscience, 2006) Seekings, Jeremy
    In many 'developing' countries widespread poverty is linked to landlessness and unemployment. Two possible responses to such poverty are employment guarantee (or public works) programmes and cash transfers. In general, low-wage job creation is the preferred option of both elites and citizens, but in South Africa cash transfers through a minimum income programme might, perversely, be more viable politically and effective more broadly in terms of poverty alleviation. The relative viability and efficacy of employment guarantees and cash transfers depends primarily on prevailing wages in the 'market'. In a high-wage economy such as South Africa, the political power of organised labour is generally sufficient to prevent low-wage employment creation in public works programmes. In the South African context - in contrast to low-wage settings such as India or Ethiopia - the extension of public welfare might be more viable than an employment guarantee, although the political obstacles should not be under-estimated.
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    Evidence on the impact of minimum wage laws in an informal sector: Domestic workers in South Africa
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Dinkelman, Taryn; Ranchhod, Vimal
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    Open Access
    Labour, wages and minimum wage compliance in the Breërivier valley six months after the introduction of minimum wages
    (2003) Conradie, Beatrice
    In August 2003, six months after statutory minimum wages came into effect in South African agriculture, wine farmers in two Western Cape districts were surveyed to establish the initial employment impacts of the sectoral determination. The data suggest universal compliance with legal requirements for most labour classes. Specified wage rates required almost no wage increase in one district, and wage increases of between 16% and 25% in the other district, especially for workers at the bottom end of the wage scale. Price elasticity of demand for farm labour is estimated to be between –0.28 and –0.30. No evidence was found that tractors and labourers are substitutes in the production of wine grapes, but the data support a substitution hypothesis for labour and grape harvesting machines, although the relationship was not statistically significant. Job losses during the past year were limited to about 1% of permanent staff, and were in line with the estimated labour elasticity.
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    The state of the labour market in South Africa after the first decade of democracy
    (CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Woolard, Ingrid; Burger, Rulof
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    Wages and wage elasticities for wine and table grapes in South Africa
    (CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Conradie, Beatrice