3 years ago
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The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has revealed what support staff working in its private offices earn, including domestic workers, drivers and special advisors to the minister.
Responding in a written parliamentary Q&A this week, the department noted that it pays its support staff anywhere between R170,000 and R1.7 million per year.
The lowest paid, on salary band 3 are domestic workers, who earn close to R170,500 annually. Special advisors, meanwhile, earn on salary band 17 and take home between R1 million and R1.74 million a year.
The second-lowest earners are drivers on salary band 4 – taking home R202,000 a year, or R16,800 a month – and secretaries on salary band 5 -taking home R241,500 a year or R20,125 a month.
The table below outlines what government support staff get paid.
Domestic worker salaries
While the document shows that domestic workers are the lowest paid in the department, their annual salary – at R170,475 or R14,200 per month – is far higher than the minimum wage required and even higher than what the average domestic worker gets paid in the country.
Since 2022, Domestic worker wages in South Africa are at an hourly earning rate of 100% the National Minimum Wage, which is R23.19 for each ordinary hour worked as of 1 March 2022. Assuming a domestic worker works 160 hours a month (eight hours a day, 20 days a month), the monthly wage comes to R3,710 for the month.
However, a recent survey conducted by SweepSouth found that the median earnings for domestic workers in South Africa are R2,929 per month for women and R2,797 for men – meaning domestic workers in government earn almost five times more than those who work in the average South African home.
This is against the backdrop of declining domestic worker jobs in the country.
The latest data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter of 2022 shows that they are also facing a rise in unemployment.
Published by Stats SA, the survey showed that the number of domestic workers in South Africa has decreased by 32,000 in Q3 2022 to 826,000 – down 3.7% from 858,000 domestic workers in Q2 and 3.5% from Q3 2021.
These numbers indicate the strain households – mainly middle-class households – are under in South Africa, as domestic help is often cited as one of the first expenses cut during times of financial pressure.
Another reason for the decline in domestic workers is the emigration and semigration of their employers.
Data from a SweepSouth survey in August 2022 found that more than a quarter (28%) of domestic workers said they lost their job because their employer had moved: 33% of the employers moved to a different town or city in South Africa, while nearly half (48%) moved to another country.
What government pays domestic workers, ‘special advisors’ and other support staff in South Africa
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