Sometimes when you rummage around Statistics South Africa’s website, you unearth unexpectedly interesting reports. The ‘Monthly Earnings in South Africa 2017 to 2022’ is one of those.
Two things immediately jumped out at me. First, South Africa’s employees earned less than I expected.
The median earnings of the 13-million employees in 2022 were R5,417 a month (note: this doesn’t include self-employed people, described as ‘own-account workers’ by Stats SA – whose median earnings are lower – or company owners – who earn more – it’s just employees).
The report was released in May this year, so 2022 is the latest available data, but I doubt that median earnings have increased significantly in the past two years.
The second surprise was how much less women earn than men. The charts below visualise the data in the report.
The median earnings of female employees in 2022 were R4,800 a month, 20% lower than men’s median earnings, which were R6,000 a month. So half the country’s 7.5-million male employees earn less than R6,000 a month and half earn more, and half the 6-million female employees earn more than R4,800 and half earn less.
That is just above the national minimum wage, which in 2022 was about R4,000 a month (if a person worked 8 hours a day for 22 days a month) and the average food basket for a low-income family cost R4,853.18 in December 2022, according to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group’s Household Affordability Index.
It’s worth mentioning the median earnings of the top income brackets. The top 10% of employees earn R26,500 a month or more and the top 5% earn upwards of R35,000 a month. The bottom 10% earn R1,733 a month or less.
The difference in median earnings between men and women was R1,200 a month. This gets bigger with age. The gap for women between the ages of 35 and 44 years was R1,400, for 45- to 54-year-olds it was R2,600 and for 55 to 64 year olds it was R3,500.
Even though women in the oldest age group earn more than women in any of the other age groups, their median earnings are less than all but the two youngest male age groups. Experience seems to count for more if you’re a man.
The gender gap also widens the higher up the professional pay scale you go. The median earnings of male managers are R7,000 higher than those of their female counterparts and for male professionals the gap is R5,000 higher. Yet, interestingly, female technicians’ median earnings are higher than males’. The only other occupation where women’s median earnings are higher than men’s is domestic work.
There’s a big gap between the median earnings of people working in the skilled occupations (green lines on the chart above), like professionals, managers and technicians, and less-skilled occupations (orange and blue lines on the chart). This gap also appears to be widening.
Where you live in the country also influences median earnings. Women earn more in Gauteng and the Western Cape than in any of the other provinces. The median salary for women in Gauteng is R7,000, which is higher than the national median for men.
In general, all employees earn more in Gauteng than anywhere else in the country. Median earnings were R2,000 higher than the national median.
Education also has a big influence on earnings. Employees with tertiary education earn significantly more than people who are less educated. But, once again the median earnings of men with tertiary education is higher than women’s – by 25%.
