From the NYT article Wage Laws Squeeze South Africa’s Poor :
Over a third of South Africa’s workforce is now idle.
…the number of garment workers employed in South Africa has plummeted to 60,000 from 150,000 in 1996. If the more than 300 factories violating minimum wages ultimately close down, 20,000 more jobs could vanish.
…as South Africa’s economy contracted amid the global financial crisis, unions negotiated wage increases that averaged 9.3 percent…companies were unable to pass on higher labor costs during the country’s recession and laid off workers instead.
Experts debate the causes of the country’s gravest economic problem, with some contending that higher wages negotiated by politically powerful trade unions have suppressed job growth.
And from the comments at Marginal Revolution:
…a minimum wage is only a ban on employment at less than that wage. Reasonable people may disagree on whether such a ban helps more than it harms…
