Casual employment takes an 18 percent hit following civil unrest

SALARIES paid to casual employees in August 2021 fell by 18 percent following the wave of unrest that gripped parts of Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal in July, according to BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index.

According to the BTPI, salaries paid to casual employees fell to 115,000 in August 2021, compared with about 140,000 casual payments a year earlier.

“This drop of 18 percent may have transpired from the unrest in July 2021. Weekly payments decreased by 2 percent, which translates into 8,000 employees losing their wages. While payments for lower salary employees decreased, the opposite was tracked for those taking home more than R7,000,” said the Index.

The average nominal take-home pay as calculated via the BankservAfrica system was R15,125 in August, representing the highest income since January 2020. However, in real 2016 terms, the average take-home pay was R12,317. In effect, this means inflation took away R2,808 of the R15,125 nominal pay.

– BUSINESS REPORT