- Four R24 taxi trips cost R96 daily, which takes a minimum-wage worker about three hours and 11 minutes to earn.
- Over 23 working days, PMBEJD calculated taxi costs of R2,208 which is almost 40% of a minimum-wage worker’s pay.
For some South Africans, more than three hours of an eight-hour workday pays only for the trip to work and back home.
The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group used an example of a worker taking two taxis to work and two homes in its latest Household Affordability Index.
Each taxi trip costs R24, putting the daily transport bill at R96.
PMBEJD says Pietermaritzburg taxi fares rose from R20 to R24 in June, an increase of 20%.
South Africa’s national minimum wage is R30.23 an hour, or R241.84 for an eight-hour day.
At that wage, it takes about three hours and 11 minutes to earn R96.
That means almost 40% of the worker’s daily pay is already gone before they buy food, electricity or anything else.
There were 23 working days in July.
A worker earning the minimum wage for all 23 days could make R5,562.32.
PMBEJD calculated that the same worker would spend R2,208 on taxis during the month.
After paying for transport and 350kWh of prepaid electricity, PMBEJD calculated that just R2,090.87 would remain for food and every other household expense.
Pictured above: A taxi.
Image source: File
