This is what the average worker gets paid in South Africa right now

Statistics South Africa has published the latest Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) up until September 2021, showing what workers are getting paid across the various sectors in the country.

According to the data, the average monthly earnings paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural sector increased by 1.6% quarter-on-quarter, from R23,681 in May 2021 to R24,051 in August 2021.

Basic salary/wages paid to employees increased by R21.7 billion (3.3%) from R659.8 billion in June 2021 to R681.5 billion in September 2021.  This was largely due to increases in the following industries:

• Community services;
• Mining;
• Business services;
• Construction;
• Manufacturing;
• Transport.

Year-on-year, basic salary/wages increased by R49.7 billion (7.9%) between September 2020 and September 2021. Bonus and overtime paid to employees increased by R4.2 billion or (6.9%) from R61.1 billion in June 2021 to R65.3 billion in September 2021.

Total employment increased by 52,000 (0.5%) quarter-on-quarter, from 9,568,000 in June 2021 to 9,620,000 in September 2021.  This was largely due to increases in the community services (63,000), mining (7,000) and transport (1,000) industries.

The electricity industry reported no quarterly change. However, there were decreases in the trade (-13,000), business services (-3,000), manufacturing (-2,000) and construction (-1,000) industries.

Take-home pay 

The latest salary data from BankservAfrica’s Take-home Pay Index shows that the average salary paid to employees, after-tax, is R15,042.

According to the index data, South Africa’s take-home pay has stayed between R12,000 – R13,150 over the last 25 months, indicating salaries in the formal sector have not changed drastically over the years.

In the last four months, the typical pay has remained below R11,000. Furthermore, the real typical pay in October 2021 reflected the highest decline since 2018.

This trend suggests South Africa has lost many high-salary jobs and that salaries for high earners in the civil service or private sector industries have not adjusted for the inflation increases.

“We expect this trend to reverse from November 2021 to January 2022 when the seasonal bonuses are paid. But, we will need to wait well into the new year to see if this reflects in the data,” said Mike Schüssler, chief economist at economists.co.za.

Read: South Africa inflation hits highest point in four years