The average salary in South Africa right now

Stats SA has published its quarterly employment survey (QES) for the first quarter of the year ending March 2023.

According to the data, the average salary in South Africa is now R25,304 a month, down 2.7% from the previous quarter, where it was R26,002, and up 6.8% from the first quarter of 2022 at R23,697.

Data published by The University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing showed that a household needs to earn around R22,000 to be considered middle class in South Africa.

This would mean that the average formally-employed non-agricultural worker in the country would fit into that class category.

Total gross earnings paid to employees decreased by R34.1 billion or -4,0% from R864.2 billion in December 2022 to R830,0 billion in March 2023.

This was largely due to decreases in the following industries: trade, community services, manufacturing, construction, transport and electricity.

However, there were increases in the following industries: business services and mining.

The year-on-year total gross earnings increased by R43.2 billion or 5.5% between March 2022 and March 2023.

Basic salary/wages paid to employees decreased by R11.8 billion or -1.6% from R751.2 billion
in December 2022 to R739.4 billion in March 2023.

Bonuses paid to employees decreased by R22.5 billion or -25.2% from R89.5 billion in December 2022 to R66.9 billion in March 2023.

Employment numbers

According to the survey results, total employment decreased by 21,000 or -0.2% quarter-on-quarter, from 9,991,000 in December 2022 to 9,970,000 in March 2023.

This was largely due to decreases in the following industries: trade (-36,000 or -1.6%), business services (-32,000 or -1.4%), transport (-2,000 or -0,5%) and construction (-2,000 or -0.4%).

However, there were increases in the following industries: community services (41,000 or 1.5%), mining (5,000 or 1.1%), manufacturing (4,000 or 0.3%) and electricity (1 000 or 1.8%).

Total employment decreased by 97,000 or -1.0% year-on-year between March 2022 and March 2023.

The QES data differs from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) in that the QES data reflects the number of people receiving salaries and does not reflect employment or unemployment trends, which are covered by the QLFS.

The QLFS for Q1 2023 showed a small rise in the country’s unemployment rate.

The official unemployment rate increased by 0.2 of a percentage point from 32.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023.

The unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition, decreased by 0,2 of a percentage point to 42,4% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022.

The results of the QLFS indicate that 179,000 jobs were lost between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. The total number of persons unemployed was 7.9 million in Q1 2023.

The number of employed persons increased by 258,000 to 16.2 million in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

Read: Young, middle-class South Africans struggling to make their salary last