{"id":328091,"date":"2019-07-09T10:23:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T08:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=328091"},"modified":"2019-07-09T10:33:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T08:33:35","slug":"how-much-doctors-engineers-lawyers-and-scientists-get-paid-in-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/328091\/how-much-doctors-engineers-lawyers-and-scientists-get-paid-in-south-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How much doctors, engineers, lawyers and scientists get paid in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the South African government moves ahead with plans to cut spending on government wages, public servants working in various sectors will at least see a small jump in pay in 2019 to cover the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

South Africa has a massive government wage bill problem<\/a><\/strong>, with economists pointing out that government wages as a percentage of GDP sits at around 14% \u2013 far higher than the global average of 10% and OECD average of 10.4%, and 42% higher than the total collected from personal income tax.<\/p>\n

The average increase in public sector wages over the years has sat above 10% per annum, leading to a critical problem today – a R600 billion wage bill, that’s R30 billion over budget.<\/p>\n

According to economist Mike Schussler, government would need to keep public sector wage increases below 10%<\/a><\/strong> for about a decade to stop the spiral.<\/p>\n

A bulletin<\/a><\/strong> published by National Treasury in June showed that officials at least managed one year of this – the annual average remuneration growth per public sector worker was cut sharply in 2018 – from 10.7% in 2017 to 5.3% in 2018.<\/p>\n

This is still above the private sector, however, which fared worse – on average, private sector wage growth slowed from 5.0% in 2017 to 4.5% in 2018, Treasury said.<\/p>\n

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

2019 wage increases<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, negotiations with public servant unions in 2018 have already delivered three-year increases in public sector salaries.<\/p>\n

In 2018, after protracted wage negotiations with government, the Public Servants Collective Bargaining Council (PSCBC) secured a 6% to 7% increase for workers<\/a><\/strong> in the sectors it covers, along with increases for the 2019\/20 and 2020\/21 years, based on forward CPI projections from National Treasury.<\/p>\n

According to a circular published in March 2019<\/a><\/strong>, the projected CPI for 2019\/20 is at 5.2%, which means public servants can expect increases ranging from 5.2% to 6.2%, depending on their job level.<\/p>\n

While CPI is currently under that level (around 4.5%), Treasury did warn that if the outcomes are different from the forecasted estimates, institutions will need to absorb any resultant differences within their budget baselines.<\/p>\n

The PSCBC negotiated the following increases for the 2019\/20 period, taking effect from 1 April 2019:<\/p>\n