Labour market research in South Africa has typically focused on issues around either the supply of labour or the general level of demand for labour. An area that has received little attention is the structure of labour demand in the firm and its changing pattern over time. The process of economic growth and development never treats all occupational groups equally and the proportions with which different occupational groups are used to produce total output will change dramatically over time. These shifts in the structure of labour demand may occur as a result of two factors -changes in production methods used within each sector of the economy, and changes in the structure of the economy itself. The aim of this paper is to begin to fill the research gap by measuring -through a simple decomposition technique -the extent to which these two factors help explain shifts in the structure of labour demand for the South African economy from 1970 to 1995*(2). SAJE v67(3) p349The paper begins with a brief discussion of how production method and structural changes influence the structure of labour demand, followed by an outline of the main trends in South African production methods and structural change since 1970. The labour demand shifts and their decomposition to reflect the influence of these two variables are then measured. Finally, this analysis is extended to estimate the demand shifts by race and gender before some conclusions are drawn. 157

No abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Although the sectors and fraction of workers covered are small given the low rates of formality and urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as the number of covered workers grows wage regulation will become increasingly significant. We find that higher minimum wage values are associated with higher GDP per capita. Importantly, however, we find that the minimum wage relative to the mean wage is higher in low income countries than in lowerand upper-middle income countries. Indeed, SSA as a whole reflects a bias towards a more aggressive minimum wage policy compared to the rest of the world. There is limited research on the employment effect of minimum wages in SSA, but the few findings are consistent with the broad summary of global research. By and large, introducing and raising the minimum wage has a small negative impact or no measurable negative impact. However, there is significant variation around this average finding -the employment elasticities are not constant nor linear. Where increases in a minimum wage are large and immediate, this can result in employment losses, but more modest increases usually have very little observably adverse effects and may have positive impacts on wages. The great variability in findings on employment could be due partly to the great variation in the detail of the minimum wage regimes and schedules country by country, but also by the variations in compliance. We find that higher Kaitz indices are associated with higher levels of non-compliance. The release of country-level earnings and employment data at regular intervals lies at the heart of a future country-focused minimum wage research agenda for Africa. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S Minimum Wages in Sub-JEL Classification: J08, J20, J21, J30, J38

: This article aims to provide a more solid, quantified basis for policy debate over minimum wage levels and their enforcement in South Africa – and in other developing countries. Matching data from the 2007 Labour Force Survey to the occupational and locational specifications of gazetted minimum wages, the authors present estimates of minimum wage violation in South Africa. They find that 44 per cent of covered workers get paid wages below the statutory minimum, with an average shortfall of 35 per cent of the minimum wage. Around these averages, violation is most prevalent in the security, forestry and farming sectors.