The national minimum wage from 1 March 2026
South Africa's national minimum wage per hour from 1 March 2026, who it covers, its daily and monthly equivalents, and how to check your pay against it.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Every March, South African employers with staff on modest wages have one figure to check before anything else in the new payroll year: the national minimum wage. A rate that was legal in February can be too low in March, and nothing in the payslip will warn you.
The 2026 rate has been in force since 1 March. This article sets out what it is, who it covers, the separate rate for public works programmes, how it converts into a day, a week and a month, what the calculation leaves out, and what happens when pay falls short. It ends with how the rate is used in Achekam's payroll.
The hourly rate and who it covers
The Department of Employment and Labour says all workers, including farm and domestic workers, must earn at least R30,23 per hour under the National Minimum Wage applicable from 1 March 2026.
The flyer names farm and domestic workers expressly, so nobody needs to guess. As the department states the 2026 rate, a gardener, a nanny and a farmhand are covered by the same hourly figure as a shop assistant.
The department publishes the rate, its worked equivalents and the complaint routes in its National Minimum Wage flyer for 2026, a short summary worth giving to whoever sets wages in the business.
The separate rate for EPWP workers
One group has a different figure. The department says workers on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) have a minimum wage of R16,62 per hour from 1 March 2026.
This rate is for workers on that programme. It is not an alternative rate for ordinary employees, and a business should not apply it to anyone who is not genuinely on the programme.
Daily, weekly and monthly equivalents
Most employers do not pay by the hour, so the department's flyer converts the rate for you. It works out the 2026 national minimum wage as:
| Period | Minimum, as the flyer works it out |
|---|---|
| An 8-hour day | R241,84 |
| A 40-hour week | R1 209,20 |
| A month (using 4,333 weeks, about four and a third) | R5 239,46 |
Use these as a check, not a shortcut. The monthly figure assumes a 40-hour week; an employee who works longer ordinary hours needs more than that amount to stay at or above the hourly rate. The safe test for any employee is always the same: divide what they are paid for a period by the hours they worked in it, and compare the result with the hourly minimum.
Short days have their own rule, which can lift pay above the simple hours-times-rate figure; see paying for four hours on short shifts.
What the calculation leaves out
The flyer adds that wage calculations exclude benefits, allowances and tips. In practice that rules out the most common ways an employer might argue a worker is "really" earning more:
- Tips do not count towards the minimum.
- Allowances, such as one for transport, sit outside the comparison.
- Benefits, such as meals provided at work, do not count towards the hourly figure either.
So a waiter, a petrol attendant or a hairdresser's assistant must receive at least the minimum as wages, before anything a customer adds.
Complaints and the tax cost of underpaying
Workers have somewhere to go. The department says a worker who is not paid the national minimum wage can lodge a complaint at the nearest Department of Employment and Labour office or at the CCMA.
There is also a tax consequence for employers who claim the Employment Tax Incentive. SARS says an employer that claims ETI for an employee paid less than the applicable minimum wage faces a penalty equal to all of the ETI claimed for that employee. Where no minimum wage applies, SARS's benchmark is R2 500. The detail of that penalty and the separate penalty for displacing workers is in ETI penalties for low pay and displaced workers.
Using the rate in Achekam
In Achekam, pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, and each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave are entered as variable inputs. Payroll reports show cost, headcount and staff movements by month and by department, which gives you a quick view of where your lowest-paid roles sit.
The minimum wage also has a specific place in Achekam's payroll. Achekam calculates the Employment Tax Incentive per qualifying employee per month for an employer that chooses to claim it, and it refuses months before April 2025. To do so it needs the minimum wage per hour that applied, entered on the tax table; without it nothing is claimed. Achekam does not fill the figure in for you.
When you enter the 2026 rate, use the moment to run the hourly check across your staff:
- Take each employee's pay for the period, excluding tips, allowances and benefits.
- Divide by the hours they actually worked.
- Compare with R30,23, or with the EPWP rate where that genuinely applies.
- Correct any shortfall before the next run is approved, and take advice on back pay for earlier periods.
For staff paid weekly or fortnightly, repeat the check on every run rather than once a month. A short week, unpaid time off or a change of roster can pull a worker's effective hourly pay below the floor in one period even when the monthly picture looks fine, and the worker is entitled to the minimum for each hour in each period.
Check again next March
The minimum wage changes from time to time, and the current flyer was revised in February 2026. Diarise a check for the start of every March: read the new flyer, update the rate on the tax table, and re-run the hourly test for anyone near the floor before the first pay run of the new year.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
