On 30 September 2025, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) in collaboration with our partner United Domestic Workers of South Africa (UDWOSA) submitted recommendations to the Department of Employment and Labour on the National Minimum Wage Annual Review 2025. The submission recommends that the national minimum wage should be adjusted upwards, and that the adjustment must explicitly consider the rising costs of food and other essentials. It emphasises the need to move beyond a narrow productivity or inflation-based approach to wage-setting towards the adoption of a fair wage framework in reviewing the minimum wage and importantly highlights that wages that do not meet the basic cost of living perpetuate cycles of poverty and inequality, particularly for domestic and farm workers who remain among the most precarious labour groups in South Africa.
The recommendations are grounded in the lived experiences of SERI’s client groups, the findings of SERI’s recent research report on food insecurity, and international standards, particularly the fair wage framework, as articulated by the International Labour Organization and United Nations human rights bodies, which recognise that wages must go beyond subsistence and enable workers and their families to live in dignity.
The submission focuses on the national minimum wage within the context of the fair wage framework, the issue of food affordability and the various coping and survival strategies employed by precarious workers to minimise the impacts of food inflation as well as the implications of these factors for the national minimum wage.
This submission is endorsed by our partners, including the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU), Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance, and the South African Domestic Workers Union (SADSAWU). Additionally, it has the support of public interest organisations including Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Union Against Hunger (UAH).
- Access the full submission here.