How affordable is a basket of food?
The Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action question if we are able to afford to feed ourselves good food on our current salaries.
The Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (Pacsa) continues to provide evidence for why they think the national minimum wage should be set at R8 000 a month, as expressed in July, with their monthly food price barometer.
According to BusinessTech, which shares business technology news and views, Pacsa’s data looks at the affordability and inflation of food prices and other necessities for working class households. Food baskets are used as the unit of measurement every month. Two baskets are compared, one basket that is affordable but not nutritionally complete, and another basket that is nutritionally complete but not necessarily affordable.
According to the Pacsa website, the price of a food basket in August has increased by R318.67, which is a 19.6per cent increase on last year’s food price of R1 623.75.
A nutritionally complete basket for a family of five, which includes two adults, two children, and an elder, would be R3 125.87. Essentially, there is a R2 382.82 difference between what families can afford, and what they need to afford to get basic nutrition.
With the current minimum wage in South Africa averaging R2 362, according to BusinessTech, South Africans are unable to afford a nutritiously complete basket. This is how Pacsa justifies its recommendation that a minimum wage of R3 200 would not be enough to afford a nutritional basket for five people, as there would only be R74 left for any other commodities or services. Therefore, an income of R8 000 would be adequate.
In BusinessTech’s report on the data, it expressed, “Economists have argued that a minimum wage of R4 000 would destroy jobs and ultimately stunt the economy even further.”
