Tom Hertz () (Department of Economics,American University)
Abstract
Minimum wages have been in place for South Africa’s one million domestic service workers since November of 2002. Using data from seven waves of the Labour Force Survey, this paper documents that the real hourly wages, average monthly earnings, and total earnings of all employed domestic workers have risen since the regulations came into effect, while hours of work per week and employment have fallen. Each of these outcomes can be linked econometrically to the arrival of the minimum wage regulations. The overall estimated elasticities suggest that the regulations should have reduced poverty somewhat for domestic workers, although this last conclusion is the least robust.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit in its series Working Papers with number
9623.
Length: 49 pages Date of creation: Oct 2005 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, October 2005, pages 1-49 Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:9623