ncome inequality was “a core challenge” facing South African society and it was important for all income earners to seek a “more equitable and more inclusive” economy where the benefits of economic growth were fairly distributed, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said yesterday.

He was responding to a question from Business Report, which asked him if it was not “hypocritical” for ministers, who earned nearly R2 million a year, to call on others to live on less in order to reduce inequality and flatten the Gini coefficient – the measure of income disparity, which in South Africa is reported to be the worst in the world.

Patel said one argument that came up in discussions over salary inequalities was that both public and private sectors needed to attract skills “from a pool that is globally mobile”.

Nevertheless, there was a recognition of “the vast gap” between the best and the lowest paid.

“Whether it is in the mining sector, or agriculture or indeed in the public sector… there is [recognition] of the vast gap between the top and bottom.”

At the time of the launch of the New Growth Path in 2010, Patel argued for an inflation peg on annual salary increases for those earning R540 000 or more a year.

He argued at the time that a modest increase above inflation was in order for employees earning between R3 000 and R20 000 a month.