South Africa’s new national minimum wage will take effect from January 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, ensuring workers earn $1.42 an hour. 

“We are here to declare that from the 1st of January in 2019, the national minimum wage shall be introduced. No worker in South Africa may be paid below the national minimum wage,” Ramaphosa said at an event in the township of Soweto.

Last month he signed into law the national minimum wage bill, in an efforts of the government to deal with wage inequality in South Africa.

The National Minimum Wage Act sets the minimum wage at 20 rand ($1.42) an hour, equal to 3,500 rand per month.