6 - Covid-19, social protection, and the labour market in South Africa

Furthermore, the authors show that this latter group of workers are concentrated amongst the poorest earners in the South African labour market: only 28% of workers in the poorest half of the income distribution are either essential or could work from home, in contrast to 61% of workers in the top 10%. [...] This study utilises data from the first wave of the NIDS-CRAM which was conducted from 7 May to 27 June 2020 in the preferred South African official language of the respondent.10 The sample frame of the NIDS-CRAM consists of NIDS Wave 5 individuals resident in South Africa aged 18 years or older at the time of fieldwork in April 2020.11 The sample was drawn using a stratified sampling design, but. [...] 20% to 48% of individuals in the poorest 80% of households report personally receiving any social grant at the time of the interview, as opposed to 6% of individuals in the richest 20% of households. [...] Figure 13 presents the results of this analysis for the month of May – the first month of the expansion of the grant system. [...] The benefits of the additional spending on the OPG are concentrated in the middle of the distribution.