Thesis (M. Sc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The President of South Africa signed the National Minimum Wage Act, the amendment
of both the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and Labour Relations Act on Friday, 23
November 2018. These Acts, which were with effect from 1 January 2019, oblige all
employers to pay at least the national minimum wage of R20.00/hr. and the agricultural
sector has been given an exemption to pay 90% respectively of the national minimum
wage (Truter, 2018). Employers in the farming sector are expected to pay at least R18.00
per hour to farm workers. However, farmers are different in terms of their characteristics
and farming capacities, and they hold different perceptions towards the revised 2018
agricultural minimum wage. According to Sechaba (2017), it is believed that there will
always be different views on what constitutes a decent and acceptable minimum wage.
This study investigated the perception of both smallholder and commercial farmers
towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality of the
Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The study had three objectives; the first objective
was to identify and describe the socio-economic characteristics of farmers, the second
one was to assess the perception of farmers on the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and
the third one was to analyse socio-economic factors influencing the perception of farmers
towards agricultural minimum wage in Bushbuckridge Municipality. Purposive sampling
was used to collect primary data from 160 smallholder and commercial farmers (Crop and
Livestock) in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM). For empirical analysis the
Multinomial Logistic Model was applied for data analysis based on information generated
using the Likert scale and the two formulated assumptions; firstly, farmers do not have
negative perceptions towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and lastly
socioeconomic factors do not influence farmers’ perception towards the 2018 agricultural
minimum wage. For empirical analysis, Multinomial logistic regression model was run on
spss and the descriptive statistics was used to analyse the perception of famers based
on the rank data from the Likert scale. Results from Multinomial regression analysis
indicated that demographic factors such as number of hectares, household size, age,
farming experience, marital status, and labour productivity were found to be significant
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(at 1, 5 and 10%) in distinguishing between pairs of groups and contribution, which they
make to change the odds of being in one dependent variable group rather than the other.
About 48.8% sampled farmers in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality showed negative
perceptions towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and were not likely to comply
with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage legislation in a sense that they had not been
paying the prescribed agricultural minimum wage to farm workers. Those who had
positive perceptions and were willing to comply were only 15.0% and those who were
uncertain on whether to comply or not comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage
were 36.2%. Therefore, it can be concluded from results that smallholder and commercial
farmers perceive the agricultural minimum wage differently and with majority of them not
willing to comply or pay the prescribed amount. Additionally, several factors influences
the perception on whether farmers were likely to comply or not to comply by paying the
prescribed minimum wage to farm workers, based on the 2018 agricultural minimum
wage. Variables: number of hectares, household size, age, experience, marital status and
minimum wage were found to be significant (at different significant levels 1, 5 and 10%)
in determining whether farmers were more likely or less likely to comply and pay the 2018
agricultural minimum wage. These variables plays a key role in determining farmers’
decision to comply or not to comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage.
However, gender, minimum wage for farmers, distance to market, access to
mechanisation, co-operative membership, access to news, pensioner and educational
status were found to be insignificant (at different significant levels 1%, 5% and 10%) at
determining whether farmers were likely to comply or not comply with the 2018
agricultural minimum wage. Thus, it is recommended that farmers, regardless of their
production scale should be consulted and given a fair platform to articulate their views
during the process of policy formulation. Policy makers and government should refrain
from using a blanket approach when formulating a policy and taking into consideration
the issue of disparities in the agricultural sector, subsectors, regions and operational scale
of farmers when discussing the agricultural minimum wage policy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3723 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Kubayi, Future |
| Contributors | Belete, A., Ledwaba, L.J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xiv, 77 leaves |
| Relation |
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