BankservAfrica’s latest take-home pay and private pensions indices show that 2018 is off to a good start, with growth experienced in both nominal and real terms.<\/p>\n
The BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index shows average formal sector pay was R14,675<\/strong> in January 2018, 5.8% higher than January 2017 before inflationary adjustment.<\/p>\n This increase was lower than December\u2019s growth of 7.3%. However, when adjusted in line with inflation, take-home pay increased by 1.2% on a year-on-year basis, and represents the slowest increase in five months.<\/p>\n \u201cThis positive real increase for money banked by employees\u2019 points to a gradual increase in living standards for most formally employed people,\u201d said Mike Sch\u00fcssler, chief economist at Economists dot coza.<\/p>\n The typical formal employee experienced a real increase of 2.2% – nearly double that of the average take-home pay increase.<\/p>\n The share of employees who receive up to R4,000 per month declined to 13.7% in January 2017 compared to 15.2% in January 2018. This is a 7.8% decline in the number of employees receiving less than R4,000 per month over the last year.<\/p>\n Those earning monthly salaries between R12,000 and R1,000 now stand at 474,000 people, which is more than the 436,900 who earn below R4,000.<\/p>\n While the number of employees taking home between R12,000 and R16,000 only grew by 1.2% , this number is still higher than the number of earners in the low-income category.<\/p>\n A quick review of the salary index shows that the real increase average was 1% more than in 2016, the group said.<\/p>\n Real take-home pay declined in the first two months of the year and then gradually increased. In the last three months of 2017, take-home pay increased by 2.8% on average after inflation.<\/p>\n
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