Whites in South Africa earned three times more than blacks
on average, two decades after the demise of apartheid, Stats SA said on
Thursday.
In a report touching on the highly sensitive issue of
inequality, research found that the wage gap between South Africa's groups
increased between 2011 and 2015.
It said the average monthly earning among blacks - who
account for 80-percent of the population - was R6,899, while the figure was
R24,646 for whites.
Income earnings in South Africa remained "heavily
racialised," the statistics authority said. It added that women earned
roughly 30-percent less on average than males.
Africa's most industrialised nation has struggled to bridge
the gap between racial and gender groups since the fall of apartheid in 1994.
For decades, the apartheid system legally divided South
Africans into groups of whites, blacks, Indians and "coloureds," a
term designating people of mixed race.
The report did not compare wage inequality between 2015 and
today.The issue is deeply controversial, touching on issues such
as inherited capital and access to quality education.
South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in
the world, despite interventions that include a new national minimum wage bill
which came into effect in January.
The new report was compiled by Statistics SA, the Southern
Africa Labour and Development Research Unit and the Agence Francaise de
Developpement (AFD).
"Black Africans are generally more vulnerable to
labour markets and unemployment is high among that population group,"
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke told local radio station 702 after he
released the report.
Black Africans make up the bulk of the country's jobless at
over 46-percent with just under 10-percent of whites facing unemployment.
The report, which also studied poverty trends, concluded
that households headed by blacks and "coloureds" were
"chronically" poor.
Blacks also had the lowest levels of access to the internet
and health insurance coverage. AFP
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