Webinar debate: Does the National Minimum Wage help or hinder job creation?

Event details: Webinar titled "Is Suspending the National Minimum Wage a GNU Route to Jobs Growth?", which forms part of the Africa Dialogue Series hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS)

Participants: IRR Fellow Gabriel Crouse, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economic and Finance at UFS, Dr Celeste Campher

Date: 21 November

Time: 12:00

Join: https://bit.ly/ADSminwage

Is South Africa’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) the most harmful prohibition against unemployed work-seekers getting jobs in the world?

While ideologues on both sides have passionate answers, leading-edge economic research debunks both the right-wing ideological myth that every NMW in the world should be cut as well as the left-wing ideological myth that every NMW should be raised.

Instead, evidence demonstrates that the NMW is a policy tool that trades off winners against losers in different ways depending on the specific rate of the NMW, the concentration of the labour market, enforcement effectiveness, and broader market conditions, which can combine to deliver a net benefit or a net loss.

In Thursday’s webinar, IRR Fellow Gabriel Crouse and labour economist Dr Celeste Campher will evaluate the merits of the NMW against domestic and international labour economic research.

Dr Campher advocates increasing the NMW at the inflation rate or more, though not necessarily ceding to union demands for an NMW increase at inflation plus 3%. By contrast, Crouse finds that the NMW Commission has acted irrationally, against its mandate, ignoring evidence in its own reports by setting the NMW at the existing high rate, which does far more harm than good, particularly to poor, work seekers.

Crouse recommends that the government of national unity should stimulate economic growth, jobs growth, and skills development by liberalising the labour market, i.e. reduce the NMW, to stimulate economic growth, jobs growth, and skills development.

Time will be set aside for questions to be put to the speakers.

Media contact: Gabriel Crouse, IRR Fellow Tel: 082 510 0360 Email: gabriel@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za