Where to get the best salary in South Africa in 2016: Joburg vs Cape Town vs Durban
CareerJunction recently released its salary review for South Africa, listing the salary ranges for 10 sectors across the country.
The company also provides details of the regional differences in pay in the three major areas of Gauteng, Durban, and the Western Cape.
Gauteng, for numerous reasons, tops all but one of the 10 sectors in terms of best pay. The province contributes approximately 35% to the economic output of South Africa – and has the highest concentration of businesses head offices.
It attracts the top talent resulting in higher and more competitive salary negotiations.
The one category in which Gauteng loses out is in Warehousing, where the Western Cape sees the highest regional difference in pay, at 6.5% higher than the average.
However, the province only sees pay higher than the average in one other category (ICT), with all other job categories in the Western Cape lower than the national average.
Looking at KwaZulu Natal, the province’s average pay is lower than the national average in every category (though there was not enough data to determine the average in Marketing).
The following graphs show the regional variation to these averages, across each category, for Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal.
For a full breakdown of the salary ranges for all 10 categories, read: South African salaries in 2016: what people earn
According to Career Junction’s salary data, these are the average salaries for each category (taking the average monthly salary for each job – both skilled and senior – into account), and how they would differ per region, using the regional differences reported.
Regional average pay differences by category (ZAR)
| Category | Average | Gauteng | Western Cape | KwaZulu Natal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin, office and support | R17 433 | R17 604 | R16 736 | R15 428 |
| Building and construction | R30 393 | R30 849 | R29 177 | R29 025 |
| Design media and arts | R24 755 | R25 745 | R24 012 | R23 764 |
| Engineering | R43 839 | R44 934 | R33 098 | R41 647 |
| Finance | R33 897 | R36 778 | R27 287 | R27 795 |
| Information Technology | R36 875 | R39 825 | R38 719 | R30 606 |
| Marketing | R34 248 | R35 960 | R31 166 | – |
| Manufacturing and assembly | R23 011 | R23 471 | R20 249 | R21 170 |
| Sales | R20 878 | R22 756 | R17 641 | R16 702 |
| Warehousing and logistics | R22 223 | R23 001 | R23 667 | R15 778 |
The Career Junction salary review is compiled exclusively for the South African workforce and HR/recruitment professionals, and is based on over 30,000 job listings on the CareerJunction website.
More on pay in South Africa
This is one area where Joburg beats Cape Town hands-down
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