The Best Paying Industries in South Africa - and the Industries Most Likely to Pay Below the Minimum Wage


By Joburg Post

 
  • A new report by online recruiter Giraffe found that banking and IT are the best paying industries in South Africa. 
  • Supermarkets were the worst paying industries, followed by restaurants and hotels.
  • The report found that the average employee in South Africa earns R6,400, and 70% of employees earn below the living wage. 

Banking and IT are the best paying industries in South Africa, but only employs 8% of the country’s junior to medium-skilled workforce, a new report by digital recruitment platform Giraffefound. 

Giraffe’s South African junior-medium skilled salary benchmark, released on Tuesday, found that the average salary in the banking industry is R10,300, and in IT it is R8,700. 

Banking and IT was followed by human resources and legal with an average salary of R8,500; accounting and finance with an average salary of R7,900; and construction with an average salary of R7,800.

Despite the retail industry being the largest employer in South Africa (18%), the report found that it pays an average salary of just R4,540. 



Supermarkets had the lowest paying salaries of just R2,700, followed by restaurants with an average salary of R3,600 and hotels with R4,400. 

A large proportion of employees in supermarkets (67%) and restaurants (50%) earn below the minimum wage of R20 an hour or R3,500 a month, the report found. 

The report was compiled from 131,699 profiles posted on Giraffe. It found that the average salary in South Africa is just R6,400 in contrast to Statistics South Africa’s estimate of R21,000. 

70% of the country’s working population earns less than the living wage of R6,570, an income estimated to be required to live a dignified quality of life, it found. 

29% of employees are estimated to earn below the minimum wage. 

The report found that 5.5 million employees across South Africa earn less than R4,125 a month, the income estimated to keep people out of poverty.

It also found that 22% of South Africans earn 50% of the total salaries paid in the country.

Read the original article on Business Insider.

-JP

Article Tags

Banking sector

IT sector

Middle income group

Economy

Income Inequality

South Africa

Cancel

    Most Read