PART 1: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
4.12 Income and profit made from informal economy activities
A question was put to the respondents about the income and profit made from their informal economy activities. Accurate information about income and profit made from informal economy trading activities was difficult to obtain. Many women were reluctant to talk about this facet of their existence despite careful probing.
Other respondents indicated that they did not have what could be said is profit because it mostly depends on what sells best on the day. It should be noted that even those who could recall appropriate profit takings, a lot of further probing was still necessary before any information was provided.
One of the respondents explained in her own words that “no one can tell you the amount they earn, your husband or your wife, they never tell you-they only give you an estimated amount they earn, nothing more”. Therefore the information in this table is based on the respondents who were able to make ‚accurate estimates‛ as they put it hence it should be taken cautiously although it was cross checked by asking the same question differently overtime during the interview.
However, this was not the case with all respondents. Some respondents did volunteer information. The profit that the respondents make from different informal economy activities ranges from R100 per week to more than R1000 per month. Some of the respondents (18%) reported a reasonable R400-R600 per month from the items sold whereas about 14% reported the same amount per week, 7% reported to gain R700-R900 per month and about 16% made around R1000 and more at any given month.
Table 8: Income and Profit made by respondents
Amount Frequency (n) Percentage (%)
Less than R100/week 4 4
R100-R300/week 10 11
R400-R600/week 13 14
R700-R900/week 10 11
R100-R300/month 17 18
R400-R600/ month 18 19
R700-R900/ month 7 7
More than R1000/month 15 16
TOTAL 94 100
NB: Missing=6
The data above reveal in part that as a sector, the informal economy plays a relatively significant role in alleviating poverty and promoting women’s economic empowerment. This depends on the significance of the activities to those who earn a
livelihood from them. For many women in the informal economy sector this depends on the extent and nature of financial returns gained by an individual from this sector.
Among the most significant fallouts of economic restructuring which has implications to the well-being of many in the informal economy are the intensification of women’s work, low income returns, deterioration in the quality of life and reduced budgets for food and consumption patterns among women. What emerges is that there are different scales of informal economy livelihood based on profit made for these women’s families.
Many women in the country earn their income and make a living from the informal economy sector. The different incomes they earn although meagre for some, still allows a number of people to survive. This fact converges with the result presented in the table above on respondents’ informal economy income as it shows that this sector is making very important contributions to provide a livelihood to many women and their families.
Profit is only one aspect of employment. Job security is of equal importance from the point of view of security of employment and security of earnings. Although there may be presumably more job security in the informal sector than the formal because one cannot be fired from self-employment, for most respondents this is somewhat offset by the nature of unpredictable profitable earnings of informal economy operations.
Although the range of incomes in the informal economy sector are really wide, the result reveals a striking spread of incomes with on the other hand the average weekly or monthly income rather low given the lengthy working hours per day, no weekends and holidays schedule of operation. On the other hand the income is rather higher than what is paid to lower echelon wage employees in the formal sector. This lends credence to the complexity and differentiation that exists among
what might appear as a homogenous group of informal economy traders all operating in marginal profit situations (Akgeyik, 2003:19).
4.13 Control of Profit
The respondents were asked to explain who control the profit made from their informal economy activities. The study found that women generally place a premium on their independence hence almost all (70%) profits made in their activities is controlled by the women themselves. 16% of the women (mostly young women) mentioned that the owner of the operation controlled the profit. 5% said profit is controlled by family (i.e. parents and siblings) while 3% control is by one’s partner (husband or boyfriend) and another 3% is by some women’s business partners (this comprised mostly of those who had borrowed money or trade in someone’s shelter or stand by agreement).
Table 9: Nature of control of profit
Profit control Frequency (n) Percentage (%)
Individual control 70 70
Owner control 16 16
Family 5 5
Partner 3 3
Business partner 3 3
TOTAL 97 100
NB: Missing=3
Women who control their own profit stated that one determines their own fate, success or failure thus one has to know exactly how to run the business whether big or small and act promptly when customers need something. Profit controlled by owners is mostly used to pay their young workers. Overall women said that making money on any particular day in the informal economy sector is uncertain although
this depends on the nature of business. Hence one has to be in control and know what comes in and goes out between money and goods sold.