‘Minding the Just Gap’: Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Income Inequality from the South African Social Attitudes Survey

ABSTRACT

This article explores perceptions of the legitimacy of income inequality in South Africa, looking at the ‘just income gap’: salaries considered to be fair for occupations at opposite ends of the status continuum. Data from the 2009 and 2016 waves of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) were analysed. Findings on perceived actual and ethical wages for five occupations indicated that, although South Africans feel that those on the low end of the wage continuum deserve a substantial increase in income, fairly high, occupationally specific levels of wage inequality were deemed legitimate. The ‘just gap’ was heavily influenced by perceptions of particular occupations and the ‘ethical calibre’ of people assumed to work in those sectors, with high public sector salaries perceived as illegitimate based on perceptions of corruption. South Africans accepted fairly high levels of inequality but favoured higher incomes for the poor and limits on corporate sector salaries.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Violent reactions to labour action, like the Marikana massacre of August 2012 in which 34 Lonmin platinum mine workers were fatally shot by police officers while striking for better remuneration (Alexander et al. 2012), could easily be a catalyst for widespread violence in contexts of such extreme inequality.

2 The top-10 JSE listed companies collectively account for approximately 60% of the total market capital invested in the stock exchange. The TGP refers to those elements of remuneration that are guaranteed and include a base salary and benefits that are received monthly. Not accounted for are short-term performance-related cash incentives (STI) based on a company’s performance over a one-year period and long-term cash and equity-based incentives (LTI) that are paid based on company performance exceeding a one-year period.

3 These figures have been contested by industry stakeholders to some degree due to the inclusion of TGP as well as STI and LTI component. Irrespective of such criticism, the disparities are nonetheless appreciable.

4 Based on One-Way ANOVA testing based on a reversed scale with ‘don’t know’ and ‘no answer’ responses omitted, we do however find that the mean score for those with a tertiary education just misses out at the 95% confidence level of being lower than those with an incomplete secondary education.

5 The correlation coefficient between inequality aversion and support for restrictions on executive pay was r = .0123, p < .001. The skewness of the inequality aversion measure may partly explain the lack of a higher association.

6 The Panel has maintained that 6-million people (35% of all employed people) earn less than R2000 pm; 5.5 million (42%) earn less than R3000; 6.2 million (47%) earn less than R3500, and 6.7 million (51%) earn less than R4000. Low salaries are especially concentrated in certain sectors, notably domestic, agriculture, construction, and trade.

7 https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1445547/cosatu-accepts-r3500-minimum-wage/; https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2016-11-21-why-the-eff-is-unhappy-about-the-minimum-wage.

8 https://mg.co.za/article/2016-11-21-treasury-warns-national-minimum-wage-will-lead-to-715-000-job-losses.

9 This is based on the interpretation that the statement was favoured by just over half the population, and strongly supported by around a fifth (18%), suggesting a ‘cautious willingness’ (McCall 2013) for such policy interventions rather than emphatic endorsement.