Thursday, August 26, 2010

How much do you earn?

Do you know what the minimum wage is for a domestic worker in South Africa? Take a look at this web site http://www.mywage.co.za/main/minimum-wages/domestic-workers-wages and you see that the minimum wage for a domestic worker/housekeeper is about R6.11 to R 8.40 per hour.... if you convert that to Australian Dollars the maximum per hour minimum wage is 1.34690 AUD. How do you manage to keep a family on that? Often times a domestic worker will be supporting up to 8 -12 family members as extended family needs support too. This situation is radically exacerbated by the whole AIDS epidemic and most greatly effects the problems that orphans and widows face.

How much do you earn? 
A lot compared to that no doubt! 


When a friend of mine was doing mission work in Zambia we worked out that that our yearly tissue bill as a family was more than the average income in Zambia. May we have an attitude of gratitude and generosity! How often we forget to be grateful, I know I take so much for granted.

Photograph from http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cacegypt.org/HSWebDesign/rwennerstrom/images/township.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cacegypt.org/HSWebDesign/rwennerstrom/pages/activities.htm&usg=__oGGQrEmxHcJQU0cpOM2yG0et0fM=&h=300&w=400&sz=58&hl=en&start=0&sig2=EnLx0LJINB9YS6j8S61jOw&zoom=1&tbnid=TR0DwMvDZ3jjZM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=171&ei=aV12TJm0CI6dcbnt2fMF&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtownship%2Bin%2Bsouth%2Bafrica%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1296%26bih%3D639%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=142&vpy=88&dur=60&hovh=167&hovw=223&tx=142&ty=46&oei=aV12TJm0CI6dcbnt2fMF&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0