The gap between what minimum wage workers earn in South Africa and the cost of a basic food basket is widening.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group (PMBEJD) collect the prices of 44 goods that women living in low-income households say they buy every month. The volumes are for seven people, the average size of low-income households.

The cost of this basket shot up during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 – and has never really recovered. Over the past five years, the cost of the same basket has increased by R2,183.

Over the same period, the minimum wage has risen by roughly R1,200 – a 38% increase compared with the 68% increase in the price of the food basket.

In December 2024, minimum wage was around R4,400 a month for full-time work (20 days a month). According to Statistics SA, half of the country’s 13-million ‘employees’ earned R5,414 or less a month in 2022.

• Get the data used in this chart on DataDesk