Decent Standard of Living Workshop 6 February 2017

Towards a Decent Living Level: The challenge of translating socially-derived standards of living into Rands

On 6 February 2017 SASPRI in collaboration with the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institure (SPII) and the Labour Research Service (LRS) and with the support of The Human Sciences Research Council hosted a  Seminar entitled “Towards a Decent Living Level: The challenge of translating socially-derived standards of living into Rands”

What level of income is needed these days in order to get by, or better still in order to have a decent standard of living?  South Africa is moving in a positive direction towards implementing a national minimum wage, but there is concern about whether it will be sufficient to enable people to cover their costs of living. The amount required for an adequate diet is calculated by Statistics South Africa, but the costs of other aspects of life are less well established. This seminar comprised a series of short presentations with opportunity for discussions. The presentations were: (1) recent findings on the incomes of those who do enjoy a socially-derived decent standard of living in South Africa, and the challenge of how to cost out such a standard of living in order to engage with debates on the adequacy of wages, social security and the social wage; (2) current work in the UK on the Minimum Income Standards (MIS) approach to costing out a decent standard of living, and how this work has been used to inform policy; (3) findings from a pilot of the MIS approach in South Africa; (4) insights from a parallel pilot of the MIS approach in Mexico. The seminar concluded by identifying pragmatic steps towards costing out a decent standard of living, followed by discussion about the opportunities this represents for sharpening debates about thresholds of adequacy.

The following presentations were made and are available for download:

Welcome and introductions Isobel Frye (SPII)  (click here to download)
The relationship between income and possession of socially perceived necessities in South Africa: an update Gemma Wright (SASPRI) (click here to download)
What is the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) in the UK and how has it been used to inform policy? Matt Padley (Loughborough University) (click here to download)
Results from a pilot of the MIS approach in South Africa Wanga Zembe and Christine Byaruhanga (SASPRI) (click here to download)
Headline findings from the pilot of the MIS approach in Mexico Matt Padley (Loughborough University)  (click here to download)
A work programme going forwards Gemma Wright (SASPRI) (click here to download)

The Report of the Pilot is also available  (click here to download)