Zimbabwe: How Much Do Zimbabwean Domestic Workers Really Earn in South Africa?

For the past few years, many Zimbabweans have continued to relocate to South Africa in search of greener pastures, and some have settled as domestic workers.

The question is how much do they earn as domestic workers in South Africa.

Understanding domestic workers in South Africa

A domestic worker is a person who works in a private household and is entitled to receive pay. Their work generally includes caring for members of a household, especially children.

According to a recent "Landscape Review of South Africa's Care Economy" report, domestic work in South Africa is mostly informal.

The report notes that domestic workers account for about 6.5 % of the workforce and nearly all are women.

How many Zimbabweans are domestic workers in SA?

Results from a recent annual survey conducted by SweepSouth, an online platform for connecting home employees to homeowners, found that Zimbabwe has more domestic workers in South Africa.

According to SweepSouth, majority of domestic workers respondents were women and between the ages of 26 and 41.

"The nationality of respondents was split between South Africa (37%) and Zimbabwe (59%), with Malawi (3%), Lesotho (1%) and other nationalities making up the remainder," reads part of the survey.

How much do domestic workers earn?

Home employees fall under national minimum (NMW) wage legislation, which entitles them to earn R28.79 per hour.

However, according to the SweepSouth survey, most home employees' average hourly earnings exceed the current national minimum wage.

The report states that there is little variation by nationality. South African home employees get R36.64 per hour and foreign nationals get R33.35 per hour.

The report states: "However, when breaking down hourly rates by individual worker, we found that while the bulk of workers earn above minimum wage (54%), an alarmingly large number of workers earn less than the NMW (46%)."

Overall, whether Zimbabwean or not, home employees earn between R3 105 and R5 242 per month, according to the recent SweepSouth report.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.