Annual increase to the national minimum wage, effective 1 March 2026

The National Minimum Wage Act 9 of 2018 (Act) was enacted to advance economic development and social justice by, inter alia, improving the wages of the lowest paid workers, and protecting workers from unreasonably low wages by establishing the national minimum wage (NMW).

3 Feb 2026 1 min read Employment Law Alert Article

In accordance with the requirements of section 6(5) of the Act, the Minister of Employment and Labour published the adjusted NMW rates in the Government Gazette on 3 February 2026, increasing the rates as follows:

NMW increases

Workers who have learnership agreements (section 17 of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998):

Table 1

Contract cleaning sector

area a area b area c

Wholesale and retail sector

names

Table 2

Table 2 continued

Metropolitan and local municipalities not mentioned in the table above:

Table 3

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