Public Service and Administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo has outlined how much government employees earn in South Africa, and the cost of introducing the latest wage increase.
Answering in a written parliamentary Q&A this week, Dlodlo explained that there are currently 16 salary bands across the public service, with employees in band 1 earning an average salary of R103,562.
By comparison, public sector workers in band 16 currently earn an average of over R2.1 million.
Dlodlo also provided a breakdown of how many workers are in each salary band, with the largest number of workers falling between salary bands 5 and 9.
Salary band | Total number of employees per salary level | Current average salary per salary level |
---|---|---|
1 | 263 | R103 562 |
2 | 77 651 | R171 278 |
3 | 69 003 | R206 957 |
4 | 38 663 | R247 296 |
5 | 201 244 | R283 227 |
6 | 129 361 | R332 985 |
7 | 306 703 | R411 227 |
8 | 159 899 | R479 868 |
9 | 99 927 | R567 956 |
10 | 54 510 | R710 273 |
11 | 35 365 | R851 022 |
12 | 27 399 | R1 222 246 |
13 | 7 660 | R1 147 609 |
14 | 2 405 | R1 378 620 |
15 | 528 | R1 661 168 |
16 | 712 | R2 130 602 |
Data from the 2020 Budget shows that the average government worker remuneration passed R400,000 a year in 2019, with this figure heading towards the R450,000 mark in 2021.
This is not spread equally across all public servants, but there has been a clear trend towards public servants being paid a lot more, in general.
Research conducted by market analytics group Intellidex at the end of 2020 found that using inflation-adjusted income bands, there has been a declining share of government personnel earning less than an inflation-adjusted R20,000 per month – from 85% of staff in 2006/07 to 48% in 2018/19 – and a rising share of staff earning above that figure.
The fastest-growing income band consists of staff earning above an inflation-adjusted monthly salary of R30,000. The number has increased over five-fold in 12 years, it said. There has been a twelvefold increase in staff earning between R30,000 and R40,000 per month, and a five-fold increase in the number of staff making in excess of R60,000 per month.
Intellidex said that the increase in top-earners in the public service had been driven by a dramatic rise in the number of medical professionals – overwhelmingly doctors – rather than ordinary public servants, administrators and policymakers.
By comparison, the average formal sector salary in South Africa is R23,122 a month, including bonuses and overtime, according to Stats SA. Research conducted by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group meanwhile, found that 56% of South Africans live on less than R1,300 a month.
Read: If you want to be a top earner in South Africa, work for government
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