Cape Town - Three-quarters of young South Africans support the idea of a youth wage subsidy, a recent survey has found.
They believe it would make it easier for young people
to find jobs, help the economy grow, and solve the problem of unemployed
youth.
In addition, most respondents (44%) disagreed
with the Congress of SA Trade Unions' (Cosatu's) stance against the wage
subsidy.
At the same time, most also expressed dissatisfaction with the Democratic Alliance's decision to march on Cosatu House.
TNS South Africa, in conjunction with FSMS, polled 538
young people on the subsidy between May 16 and 20 this year in a short cellphone survey.
Those who responded were mostly those likely to be
affected most - aged under 24 years (55%) - with a further 27% aged 25 to 30 years.
The results showed that 77% supported the idea, 11% did not, and 12% gave a "don't know" response.
Among those supporting the idea, 80% were aged
16 to 24 years, while the support dropped somewhat to 66% for
those aged 31 years and over.
There were only minor differences across the different language groups and no gender differences.
Some 96% of the respondents agreed it was
important to solve the problem of unemployed youth and 73% agreed
a youth wage subsidy would make it easier for young people to find
jobs.
Some 65% also agreed a youth wage subsidy would help the economy grow.
Conversely, 42% agreed the subsidy would be a
further burden to taxpayers, 24% disagreed, and 34% responded with "don't
know".
Some concern (19%) was also expressed that the
subsidy would put people who had jobs at risk of losing them, 43%
disagreed, and 37% said "don't know".
Furthermore, 31% agreed that under the subsidy
young people would not be paid what they were worth, while 32%
disagreed and 37% again said "don't know".
On the roles of Cosatu and the DA, who had been at
loggerheads about the wage subsidy, only 25% agreed that Cosatu
was correct in opposing the subsidy while 44% disagreed.
The trade union federation was also accused by 36% of respondents of not caring about the problem of unemployed
youth while finding favour with 33%.
Equally, 40% felt that the DA should not have
marched on Cosatu House last week as opposed to 27% who disagreed
and 33% who said "don't know".
Among those who disagreed with the DA, 44% spoke a black African language as their home language.
The respondents in the survey consisted of 411 blacks and 127 people of other race groups.