Surviving Minimum Wage Understanding The Pay Disparities In Sa Professional Sport

Pay scandals in South African professional football seem to be a lot more prevalent than in rugby and cricket.

In October last year, Premier Soccer League PSL second-tier club Leruma United were accused of allegedly paying some of their players as little as R1,000 per month. A few months later, in December, top-flight outfit Royal AM couldnt pay their players ahead of the festive season after the South African Revenue Service Sars put them under curatorship.

There always seems to be some sort of struggle when it comes to footballers at the lower end of the local games tax bracket, especially when it comes to clear guidelines in terms of how much they actually need to earn.

Shockingly, there is no prescribed minimum wage agreement for professional footballers in the Betway Premiership and the ABC Motsepe League.

In terms of the law, as of March 1, 2024, the minimum wage in South Africa is R27.58 per hour, or R4,779.38 per month for a 40-hour work week. But it seems some teams still try to bend the rules to pay players even less than that.