29 jobs in South Africa that pay R2 million or more a year

Specialist recruitment firm Michael Page has published its latest salary guide, showing what skilled professionals in South Africa can expect to earn in 2023.

South Africa, like much of the world, has experienced a highly volatile year, with various factors impacting salary levels over the last 12 months.

This inclined major global economic instability, skills shortages in certain sectors, high unemployment levels locally, supply chain challenges and global adoption of work from anywhere, to name a few.

According to Michael Page managing director for South Africa, Paul Newman, the country has been knocked back and forth by many, if not all, of these issues.

“The political scenario around the world has had a massive impact on fuel prices globally which has had a knock-on effect on the supply chain, and the cost of living in South Africa, in general, has increased significantly,” he said.

Interest rates are above pre-pandemic levels, with the repo rate at 7.00% and the prime lending rate at 10.5% – meanwhile, headline consumer inflation for October 2022 surprised on the upside at 7.5%. All these elements have had and will continue to have an impact on salaries during 2023, Newman said.

Positively, however, at least from a workforce point of view,  Newman said that the country had experienced an increase in demand from global multinational clients who are looking to tap into the South African market for scarce skills and experienced staff.

“Various industries are open to adopting a work-from-anywhere approach should their operations allow for such an arrangement; however, we’ve seen the biggest interest from the technology sector,” he said.

The MD said that South Africa appears to be high on the priority list due to time zones, language, available resources, and cost, which creates a challenge for local employers competing for the same talent.

The Michael Page salary insights report looks at this highly sought-after market of skilled professionals and what they earn.

Top earners

The top earners – according to Michael Page’s data – are senior partners of top local and international law firms who can pull salaries well over R5 million a year. However, the average salary for these professionals is R3 million.

The group with the highest average salary in South Africa are group/regional CFOs at finance companies who can expect to earn up to R5 million a year, with an average salary of R4 million a year.

By comparison, finance directors in these companies can expect to earn up to R3.5 million a year, averaging R3 million.

Other top-paying positions can be found working in supply chain, where a VP can earn as much as R3.8 million a year, as well as sales and marketing jobs, where top salaries go as high as R2.8 million.

While salary data is very comprehensive, it is important to note that it is primarily focused on professionals.

This means that certain sectors, such as airline pilots, engineers, medical personnel and government officials, do not feature in the report.

The salaries in the table below reflect the average salary for the position as per Michael Page’s data. MNC refers to multinational corporations, while SMEs reflect small to medium enterprises.

Read: How much the average government worker gets paid in South Africa