Unlike accommodation and other payments in kind, which are expressly excluded for the purposes of calculating a wage in terms of the National Minimum Wage Act and consequently which cannot be deducted from a ‘wage’, the National Minimum Wage Act does not expressly exclude the payment of funds of which a domestic worker is a member from wages. Similarly, the sectoral determination permits such deductions.

Such funds include medical aid schemes, pension funds, provident funds, saving funds, etc. and can involve both an employee contribution and an employer contribution.

It remains to be seen whether regulations will be passed in due course in terms of the National Minimum Wage Act which similarly exclude fund contributions from the calculation of wages and thereby exclude deductions from wages in that regard. At this stage, however, a domestic worker’s contribution towards such funds (effected by way of a deduction from the domestic worker’s salary) is permitted.

Once again, it is advisable for employers to make a distinction between wages and remuneration in contracts of employment with fund contributions being in addition to the wage payable.

Deductions for fund contributions can also only be effected with the written consent of the domestic worker and accordingly these deductions should be dealt with in contracts of employment (click to see contract of employment).