Living wage still dream

REPORT: SHOPRITE PAYS LOWEST INTERNAL MINIMUM REMUNERATION

- Tshehla Cornelius Koteli

It is no secret that salaries in the retail sector are less attractive than those in other sectors and shareholder activism group Just Share has criticised Shoprite for its internal minimum wage.

A report titled JSE Top 40 Vertical Wage Gap Disclosure Practices has brought to light that Shoprite paid some of the lowest wages among publicly listed companies.

The report by Just Share looks into remuneration disclosures by Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies.

This includes the ratio between the remuneration of the highest- and lowest-paid employees.

The Companies Amendment Act, signed into law in July 2024, requires public and state-owned companies to disclose the earnings of their top and lowest employees.

The report examined the top 40 companies on the JSE and assessed whether they disclosed their vertical pay gap and internal minimum wage.

Out of all of these, only 15 companies disclosed their internal minimum wage, with Shoprite's being the lowest.

According to the report, Shoprite's internal minimum wage is R71 674 a year, about R5 972 a month before deductions.

This is just above the 2024 national minimum wage threshold of R5 378 per month.