The labour market for minibus taxi drivers in South Africa

In this paper, we provide the first detailed description of the labour market for taxi drivers in South Africa and investigate the extent to which wages in this market are set competitively. To do this we analyse survey data on both drivers and owners of minibus taxis. We find both direct and indirect indications that this market is not competitive, despite the low skill requirements and bargaining power of taxi drivers in an economy characterised by high unemployment, which would appear to be characteristics of a competitive labour market.This paper is based on Lauren Antrobus’s honours long paper, written as a student in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town. It has been substantially revised and we acknowledge funding from a REDI incentive grant that helped make these revisions possible. Although the main analysis in the paper is based on survey data, some of the insights come from ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in the taxi industry by Andrew Kerr between 2013 and 2016. In the interests of transparency: Andrew Kerr is also the owner of the website taximap.co.za, which provides information to commuters who wish to use minibus taxis