Wealth

Cyril Ramaphosa’s salary vs other world leaders – and the average South African

Staff Writer

 ·23 Oct 2018

On average world leaders earn six times more than their citizens.

This is according to research by jobs website Adzuna, which compared the annual salaries of leaders from 45 nations with the average income of their population.

For the investigation, Adzuna researched the latest media reports on the salaries of the respective politicians, compared with the information from the Wage Indicator Foundation.

For the average income of the populations, the World Bank’s data on gross national income per capita (as of 2017) was used.

Adzuna found that South African president Cyril Ramaphosa ranked in first place – earning R3.6 million – 19 times more than the average South African at R191,572.

In second place is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long of Singapore, who commands a hefty pay packet of R23.3 million, 18 times higher than his compatriots.

Tied for last in the study are China and Vietnam. In both nations, the leaders almost earn on parity with the population. China’s President Xi Jingping earns R289,901, whereas the average worker in China brings home R245,822 per year.

“This study doesn’t take into account the wealth many of these world leaders accumulated before they entered politics,” said Adzuna CEO Raife Watson.

“Our former Prime Minister was a millionaire many times over before he joined the Australian parliament, which is why he had the capacity to donate a million dollars to his own party during an election campaign,” Watson said.

This is also the case for South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa, who has a net worth of approximately R6.4 billion as of July 2018.

In the ranking of the top-paid leaders overall, Ramaphosa ranks as the 12 highest paid.

Original figures were reported in Australian dollars. Conversions were calculated at R10.53/AUD$1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

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