24 jobs in South Africa that pay over R2 million a year

Specialist recruitment firm Michael Page has published its latest salary guide, showing what skilled professionals in South Africa can expect to earn in 2022.

Although South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, the Michael Page Group said it experienced a sharp increase in recruitment assignments in 2021 compared to the previous year.

This was particularly notable for mid to senior management level positions during the first quarter of the year, and this pace continued throughout the year.

“This would indicate that businesses are in need of strong leadership and skilled candidates with considerable experience to drive business recovery during these challenging and uncertain times,” said Paul Newman, operating director for PageGroup South Africa.

“Almost all the industries and sectors showed a positive trend in terms of hiring activity, however, the Healthcare and Technology sectors have been the most active and we anticipate for it to continue in the medium term,” he said, adding that hiring in engineering, manufacturing and mining has also demonstrated momentum.

The has not come without significant changes, however, with Newman highlighting sentiment among job applicants in South Africa looking to fulfil their tasks or responsibilities remotely, highlighting the need for technology capabilities to be accelerated.

“What started as an enforced work-from-home policy for some companies has now evolved into a long-term strategy for most companies, thereby accelerating digital transformation and technology adoption across nearly all industries,” he said.

“With organisations realising that working from home can be productive and is a true solution, we have noticed a sharp increase in global organisations sourcing scarce talent to be based anywhere across the world, this is particularly true within the Technology sector where there is a real skills shortage in South Africa.”

Top earners

The top earners – according to Michael Page’s data – are group/regional CFOs at finance companies who can expect to earn up to R5 million a year, with the average salary at R4 million a year.

By comparison, finance directors in these companies can expect to earn up to R3.5 million a year, averaging R3 million.

Other top-paying positions can be found working in supply chain, where a VP can earn as much as R3.8 million a year, as well as sales and marketing jobs, where top salaries go as high as R2.8 million.

It is important to note that while salary data is very comprehensive, it is primarily focused on professionals.

This means that certain sectors such as airline pilots, engineers, medical personnel and government officials do not feature in the report.

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