Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015

dc.contributor.authorSeekings, Jeremy
dc.date.accessioned2016-08-30T06:39:12Z
dc.date.available2016-08-30T06:39:12Z
dc.date.issued2016-04
dc.description.abstractThe growing literature on the institutions that set minimum wages points to the importance of institutional design but lacks empirical studies of how and why institutions work in different ways. This paper examines the case of the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) in South Africa between its establishment in 1999 and 2015. The ECC, comprising members nominated by organised business and labour together with government-appointed experts, set sectoral minima in low-wage sectors without strong collective bargaining. The ECC tended towards caution in setting and raising minima, for at least three reasons: concern over possible job destruction (in an economy with very high unemployment already), low baseline minima inherited from previous or other institutions, and the negotiating styles of labour and business representatives. The ECC raised sectoral minima steadily in real terms, in some cases more than doubling over about a decade. On only one occasion, under intense political pressure from the government, did the ECC recommend a major real increase. Lacking independent research capacity and hence good evidence on the size of employment effects, the ECC was vulnerable to political pressure (from the government) or criticisms (from trade unions, from 2012 onwards).en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationSeekings, J. (2016). <i>Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21595en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationSeekings, Jeremy <i>Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Survey Unit, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21595en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSeekings, J. (2016). Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015. CSSR Working Paper No. 375. Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-77011-362-6en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - Seekings, Jeremy AB - The growing literature on the institutions that set minimum wages points to the importance of institutional design but lacks empirical studies of how and why institutions work in different ways. This paper examines the case of the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) in South Africa between its establishment in 1999 and 2015. The ECC, comprising members nominated by organised business and labour together with government-appointed experts, set sectoral minima in low-wage sectors without strong collective bargaining. The ECC tended towards caution in setting and raising minima, for at least three reasons: concern over possible job destruction (in an economy with very high unemployment already), low baseline minima inherited from previous or other institutions, and the negotiating styles of labour and business representatives. The ECC raised sectoral minima steadily in real terms, in some cases more than doubling over about a decade. On only one occasion, under intense political pressure from the government, did the ECC recommend a major real increase. Lacking independent research capacity and hence good evidence on the size of employment effects, the ECC was vulnerable to political pressure (from the government) or criticisms (from trade unions, from 2012 onwards). DA - 2016-04 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 SM - 978-1-77011-362-6 T1 - Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015 TI - Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21595 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/21595
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationSeekings J. Minimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015. 2016 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21595en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Survey Uniten_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.titleMinimum wage-setting by the Employment Conditions Commission in South Africa, 1999-2015en_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceWorking paperen_ZA
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