About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1937. Wage Act

This is either a completely new law or an amendment to the WAGE ACT of 1925. Together with the INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION ACT of the same year, it "applied the rule of equal pay for equal work at all levels. No wage-fixing agency was allowed to discriminate on grounds of race or colour. What seemed to be a rare instance of generosity actually amounted to gross discrimination. For it prevented Africans and Coloured from undercutting, and this was the only way by which they could offset prejudice and lack of skill" (Simons & Simons 1969: 515).

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.