The Decent Standard of Living measure offers us a fresh way of looking at the living wage. This measure defines what makes a decent standard of living and it is made of the perceptions of our people. This measure is based on a set of 34 socially perceived necessities for a decent life. If you have these things, you have a decent standard of living.
This report is the outcome of our 2021 DSL Colloquium, which presented an updated list of Socially Perceived Necessities (SPNs). The SPNs illustrate what South Africans consider essential living conditions and/or possessions needed to live a decent life.
This one goes out to the trade unionists and anyone else who understands that what few gains the working class have made, they have made through struggle.
In the context of policy making in South Africa, it is easy to lose the big picture of the direction in which the country hopes to move. We unpack some of the policy implications for the DSL.
We now have a socially derived definition of a decent standard of living (DSL) in South Africa. The DSL was developed using simple steps that included what ordinary people thought.