How much South Africans spend on groceries vs the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia and more
When looking at the minimum wage, South Africans spend a far higher portion of their salaries on groceries compared to people living in popular South African emigration hotspots.
According to Picodi, South Africa has a minimum net wage of R4,353 – a 9.4% increase from 2024.
To understand how much South Africans can afford on the minimum net wage, Picodo created the “survival basket” consisting of eight groups of products: bread, milk, eggs, rice, cheese, meat, fruits and vegetables.
Although the products are modest, in the given quantities, they can meet the nutrient requirements of an average adult each month.
The total cost of the survival basket at the start of 2024 is R1,503 – 6.07% more than the last year.
This amounts to 34.5% of the net minimum wage in 2024 – an improvement from 35.6% of the minimum wage in 2023.
“This means that the increase in South African minimum wage kept up with the rise of food prices,” Picodi said.
The breakdown of the food products can be found below:
- Milk (10 litres) – R187
- Bread (10 loaves, 500 g each) – R168
- Rice (1.5 kg) – R39
- Eggs (20 pcs.) – R61
- Cheese (1 kg) – R127
- Poultry and beef (6 kg) – R595
- Fruits (6 kg) – R147
- Vegetables (8 kg) – R179
The rest of the world
Picodi also compared the cost of the basic grocery basket with the minimum wage across 67 countries and selected countries.
The most comfortable ratio of the grocery basket to the minimum wage can be found in several emigration hotspots for South Africans, with the United Kingdom (7.2%), Ireland (7.2%), the Netherlands (7.6%) and Australia (7.7%) topping the list.
Workers in these countries spend less than one-tenth of their local minimum wage on basic groceries.
South Africa is well behind those countries, with 34.% of the minimum wage needed for the survival basket, putting South Africa 49th out of 67.
However, South Africa still ranks higher than Mexico (35%), Brazil (37.1%), Ukraine (49.3%) and India (58.5%).
Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, was at the bottom of the rankings, where the minimum salary cannot even cover the cost of the survival basket (116.5%).
Loading ...
