South Africa had increased the real wages of workers covered by sectoral determinations for the period 2001 to 2010, particularly the wages of domestic workers and farm workers. The employment in sectors covered by the minimum wage legislation also grew significantly over the same period. The overall employment of workers under the this legislation had grown at a rate of 2,9% per annum from nearly 3,5 million in 2001 to over 4 million in 2007. The extension of collective agreements to non-parties has yielded better outcomes. As a result of this, the average wage settlement has been 2% higher than the inflation rate. This indicated that the living standards of workers had improved. The lowest income of an unskilled worker in South Africa when compared to 1 dollar per day was 9 dollars per day. This implied that the lowest income for the lowest paid worker in the bargaining council system across all sectors was above 1 dollar per day.