A new report estimates that workers in South Africa’s Cape Winelands need about R7,921 per month (gross), or about €410, to afford a decent standard of living. This is about 50% higher than the legal minimum wage in the wine sector.

The figure is based on detailed local data, including food prices, housing costs, and interviews with workers across key wine-producing towns such as Stellenbosch, Paarl, Robertson, Rawsonville, and Hermanus.

The newly released Living Wage Report: Cape Wineland Regions, South Africa 2025 found that while the current agricultural minimum wage is roughly R5,600 per month, or about €290, workers still fall short of what is considered a living wage. A living wage is defined as income sufficient to cover essential needs, including food, housing, healthcare, and education for a reference household, without requiring excessive overtime.

Conducted as part of Fairtrade Finland’s development cooperation programme, funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by Fairtrade Africa, the report was authored by Benjamin Stanwix and Jabulile Monnakgotla of the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and Koen Voorend of the Anker Research Institute.

“This project was highly inclusive in nature, bringing together so many people and their organisations around this effort, such as local and international researchers, producers and buyers of South African wine, trade unions operating in the sector and of course the workers on wine farms themselves,” said Wilbert Flinterman, Senior Advisor Workers’ Rights and Trade Union Relations, Fairtrade International.

The researchers used a combination of national statistics and field data, alongside inputs from organisations, including the Global Living Wage Coalition, to construct conservative estimates. These assume low-cost diets, minimal acceptable housing, and subsidized public services where available.

The study’s findings are timely coming amid wider concerns about persistent inequality and high unemployment in South Africa. The unemployment rate is around 33%. Even in the relatively more prosperous Western Cape, workers remain economically vulnerable, with many households reliant on social grants to supplement wages.

The report stresses that the living wage figure is not a legal requirement, but a benchmark intended to guide negotiations between employers, buyers, and workers across the wine supply chain, much of which is export-oriented and globally competitive.

Closing the wage gap between prevailing wages and the living wage requires a concerted effort and shared responsibility across the full value chain. This means everyone from producers and buyers to policymakers and standard setters.

“Fairtrade continues its contributions to the South African wine sector, so that better wages are the outcome of responsible purchasing practices and effective industrial relations systems,” Flinterman said.

And while the report was developed with the wine production sector in mind, its scope extends beyond it. The living wage estimate applies broadly across the Western Cape region’s rural areas and offers a relevant baseline for other agricultural industries in the region.

To learn more and read the full report, click here.