How much money you get paid according to your age in South Africa

A new report shows how much the median wage is in South Africa, as well as how much money people earn according to their age, and their ethnicity.

Data published by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) in its Labour Market Dynamics Report for 2009 to 2015, showed that the average South African wage was R3,200 last year.

Between 2010 and 2015, total median monthly earnings increased by R200. Over the same period, an increase in the median monthly earnings was observed among own –
account workers (R816) and employees (R200) while for employers earnings declined (R916).

The highest monthly median earnings for own- account workers (self employed) was observed in 2015 at R2,816 while for the  employees, it was in 2012 at R3,115.

Employers recorded the highest earnings of R9,100 in 2011 which declined by R2,100 between 2011 and 2015.

The median monthly earnings for all population groups increased over the period 2010 to 2015, except for the Indian/Asian population  group for whom earnings decreased by R200.

Earnings for whites ranged from R9,850 in 2010 to R12,000 in 2015 while for black Africans, median monthly earnings ranged from a low of  R2,200 in 2010 to R2,900 in  2015.

The median monthly earnings were higher for the employees aged 55–64 in all years and lowest amongst young people aged 15–24 years.

However, the median monthly earnings for those aged 55-64 years remained unchanged at R3,500 between 2010 and 2015.

According to salary research group PayScale, it is important to note that salaries are mostly determined by years of experience, and not by age.

However, it can be assumed that experience and age are closely aligned if  most employees leave university at age 21.

According to the data, in their first year of work, young professional South Africans can expect to earn an average of R151,820 a year.

This increases to an average salary of R208,000 (1 – 4 years of experience), before hitting around R358,000 by the time people reach the age of 30 (5 – 9 years of experience).

In South Africa, employees with between 10 – 19 years of experience (thus in their 30s), draw an average salary of R510,000 – a 42% increase from their late 20s.

This is based on the reported salaries of 30,000 South Africans across all careers.

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