How much money you should be earning in your 20s in 2017

Salary research group, PayScale, has updated its salary data for South Africa for 2017, showing what young South Africans can expect to earn within their first nine years of working experience.

It is important to note that PayScale’s salary data is determined by years of experience, and not by age specifically. However, it can be assumed that experience and age are closely aligned if most employees leave university at age 21.

The salary data below also carries some caveats – primarily that it is an overall picture of median salaries, captured across all industries, for people who hold a bachelor’s degree.

Different career paths also “peak” at different times: economists at PayScale note that any career where the majority of training happens in school or within the first few years of work, will likely not see much pay growth after that.

According to PayScale’s data for 2017, this is what South Africans in their 20s can expect to be paid (per annum) in their first nine or so years of work:

• Less than 1 year experience: R143,900
• 1 to 4 years experience: R211,300
• 5 to 9 years experience: R345,000

The salary data is based on reported information by 134,280 South African employees with up to nine years working experience, updated as of 27 January 2017. Figures represent the median salary.

These are the most popular jobs for each bracket of work experience:

Most popular jobs: < 1 year experience

City Variations (median salary)

• Johannesburg: R148,400
• Sandton: R146,800
• Pretoria: R141,200
• Cape Town: R141,000
• Port Elizabeth: R119,600
• Durban: R117,400
• Bloemfontein: R97,085

Most popular jobs: 1 – 4 years experience

City Variations (median salary)

• Sandton: R186,000
• Johannesburg: R179,000
• Cape Town: R149,200
• Pretoria: R145,600
• Port Elizabeth: R126,400
• Durban: R122,800
• Bloemfontein: R122,200

Most popular jobs: 5 – 9 years experience