in the argentinian scheme for example payments represented approximately per cent of the monthly minimum wage up to but this gradually decreased to per cent by as minimum wage levels were raised in subsequent years benefit adequacy was also a major issue in the first phase of south africas epwp there was no specified minimum wage and stipends varied widely across regions and sectors with payments in the social programmes being especially low in the average rate for social sector work where women dominate was r us per day compared to r in the more traditional infrastructure components where men dominate in the second phase of the programme a minimum wage of r per day was introduced to address the low and varying benefit levels this was also inflationadjusted on an annual basis reaching r in mid public works programmes that only offer physically demanding work are also likely to exclude some women or put them at a disadvantage where wages are linked to workload social service work opportunities offered by the programme include care of young children and homebased care for people living with hiv