{"id":325335,"date":"2019-06-25T18:32:23","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T16:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=325335"},"modified":"2019-06-25T16:32:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T14:32:34","slug":"how-much-money-you-can-expect-to-earn-in-your-first-job-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/325335\/how-much-money-you-can-expect-to-earn-in-your-first-job-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How much money you can expect to earn in your first job in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new salary benchmark survey by recruitment specialist Giraffe shows what junior employees can expect to earn when starting out in their new jobs.<\/p>\n

Giraffe’s data indicates that average salaries in South Africa are far lower than government-supplied data implies. While Stats SA has the average monthly salary in the country at around R21,000 per month, the recruitment group’s data shows this is significantly lower at R6,400 per month.<\/p>\n

Stats SA’s data covers the entire workforce of 16.3 million people, while the Giraffe survey is mainly concentrated on youth employment, where 87% of its sample are aged 18 to 35.<\/p>\n

Thus the Giraffe data is a better gauge for junior- to mid-level employees, rather than the South African workforce as a whole.<\/p>\n

The figures are based on analysis of close to one million medium-skilled candidates in Giraffe’s data base, and reflects an accurate representation of salaries for junior employees in South Africa across industries, roles, and education level.<\/p>\n

State of wages in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Africa for the very first time introduced a national minimum wage (NMW) in January. With some exceptions, the NMW was set at R20 per hour or approximately R3,500 per month, depending on the number of hours worked.<\/p>\n

According to Giraffe, “the working poor” in South Africa have household incomes of R4,125 per month, while a “living wage” for an individual in the country in R6,570 per month. This is the wage where employees can move out of poverty and live with dignity, the group said.<\/p>\n

“Our analysis shows that average monthly salary in South Africa is R6,400, 29% of employees earn below minimum wage, 45% are living poor and 70% earn below the living wage,” it said.<\/p>\n

What jobs pay the best for juniors<\/strong><\/p>\n

The table below outlines the best and worst paying junior positions across 25 different job categories used by Giraffe. It also includes the industries that pay the highest averages for each job type.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Job<\/th>\nAverage Salary<\/th>\nHighest paying sector<\/th>\nAverage salary<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Manager<\/td>\nR7 700<\/td>\nHotel<\/td>\nR9 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Welder<\/td>\nR6 600<\/td>\nConstruction<\/td>\nR7 300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Supervisor<\/td>\nR5 900<\/td>\nCall Centre<\/td>\nR9 600<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Call Centre<\/td>\nR5 700<\/td>\nSecurity<\/td>\nR8 900<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nurse<\/td>\nR5 500<\/td>\nHealthcare<\/td>\nR5 500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IT<\/td>\nR5 300<\/td>\nTelecoms<\/td>\nR5 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Accounts\/Bookkeeper<\/td>\nR5 200<\/td>\nManufacturing\/Retail<\/td>\nR6 300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Forklift Driver<\/td>\nR4 800<\/td>\nTransport<\/td>\nR5 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Customer Service<\/td>\nR4 700<\/td>\nBanking<\/td>\nR7 400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Salesperson\/Promoter<\/td>\nR4 700<\/td>\nTransport<\/td>\nR8 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Machine Operator<\/td>\nR4 600<\/td>\nConstruction<\/td>\nR5 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Admin\/Clerk<\/td>\nR4 500<\/td>\nBanking<\/td>\nR7 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data Capture<\/td>\nR4 500<\/td>\nBanking<\/td>\nR6 900<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Driver<\/td>\nR4 500<\/td>\nConstruction<\/td>\nR4 800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Receiving\/Dispatch\/Stock Control<\/td>\nR4 400<\/td>\nTransport<\/td>\nR5 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Receptionist\/PA<\/td>\nR4 300<\/td>\nSecurity<\/td>\nR5 300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Security Guard<\/td>\nR3 900<\/td>\nSecurity<\/td>\nR4 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Barista<\/td>\nR3 600<\/td>\nRestaurant<\/td>\nR3 600<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cashier<\/td>\nR3 100<\/td>\nBanking<\/td>\nR6 600<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shop Assistant<\/td>\nR3 100<\/td>\nAdvertising\/Retail<\/td>\nR3 300<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Butcher<\/td>\nR3 000<\/td>\nRetail<\/td>\nR3 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cook\/Chef\/Griller<\/td>\nR3 000<\/td>\nHotel<\/td>\nR3 800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Picker\/Packer<\/td>\nR2 800<\/td>\nTransport<\/td>\nR3 500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Waiter<\/td>\nR2 800<\/td>\nHotel<\/td>\nR3 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cleaner<\/td>\nR2 500<\/td>\nTransport<\/td>\nR3 200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average<\/strong><\/td>\nR4 300<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Salary growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Giraffe data also shows the earning potential across different jobs. Someone with IT skills may start out earning R5,300 a month as a junior, but can see this grow to R19,200 a month as they go into more senior roles.<\/p>\n

This growth can also be seen in other skilled professions, like accountants, supervisors and welders, etc.<\/p>\n

In more menial jobs, like cleaners, picker’s\/packers and cashiers, the jump in pay from junior to senior is less pronounced.<\/p>\n

The graph below outlines the job types with the best average wage growth prospects, according to Giraffe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read: Rent vs salary in South Africa\u2019s biggest cities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new salary benchmark survey by recruitment specialist Giraffe shows what junior employees can expect to earn when starting out in their new jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":59183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[13001,26],"class_list":["post-325335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-giraffe","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325335"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325499,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325335\/revisions\/325499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}