New Minimum Wage effective from 1 March 2021

01 March 2022
South African Accounting Academy

As in previous years, the adjustment provides exceptions for several worker groups, including:

Farmworkers are entitled to a minimum wage of R23.19 per hour;
Domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage of R23.19 per hour;
Workers employed on an expanded public works programme are entitled to a minimum wage of R12.75 per hour;
Workers who have concluded learnership agreements contemplated in section 17 of the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act No 97 of 1998), are entitled to allowances contained in schedule 2.

Employees earning more than R224 080,48 (two hundred and twenty-four thousand and eighty forty-eight cents) per year are exempt from sections 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17(2) and 18(3) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) as of 1 March 2022. These sections protect vulnerable employees by regulating, among other things, working hours, overtime, and compressed schedules. working time, average hours of work, meals interval, daily and weekly rest periods, pay for work on Sundays, night work, and work on public holidays.

This announcement is in terms of Section 6 (5) of the NMW Act, No 9 of 2018, to amend the NMW contained in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of the National Minimum Act, published under Government Notice No. 44136.

Click here to download the Government Gazette:

https://www.labour.gov.za/DocumentCenter/Regulations%20and%20Notices/Notices/Basic%20Conditions%20of%20Employment/Review%20and%20Adjustment%20of%20the%20National%20Minimum%20Wage%20for%202022.pdf

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

The National Minimum Wage Act is yet another piece of legislation that your clients must comply with, and which you must assess compliance with. If they don’t comply with the relevant laws and regulations, you have certain reporting obligations in terms of NOCLAR (NOn-Compliance with Laws And Regulations) – this could include reporting to management, qualifying your audit opinion, reporting a Reportable Irregularity, etc.
As an employer, you also need to consider compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act in your workplace, and at home

Relevance to Your clients:

An entity (company or close corporation) and individual employers have a duty to comply with the Companies Act.
It is illegal and unfair labour practice for an employer to unilaterally change working hours or other employment conditions in order to implement the NMW.
As an employer, your clients also need to consider compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act in their workplace, and at home

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