{"id":855422,"date":"2026-03-31T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=855422"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:04:55","slug":"the-company-in-south-africa-where-the-average-employee-earns-over-r2-million-per-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/855422\/the-company-in-south-africa-where-the-average-employee-earns-over-r2-million-per-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The company in South Africa where the average employee earns over R2 million per year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The average employee on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) earns over R2 million per year, while the lowest-paid employee earns around R435,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE was formed in 1887 and is the largest stock market on the continent. It has over 250 listings, which have a combined market cap of over R20 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to its latest remuneration report, the JSE also pays its staff incredibly well. The average staff member earned a total remuneration of just over R2 million in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the average is often influenced by the highest earners, the median remains a respectable R1.38 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lowest-paid employee earned R437,000 per year, while outgoing CEO Leila Fourie earned R45.3 million, much of it from short- and long-term incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ratio of the highest paid employee to the lowest paid stood at 103.84, which was above the company’s target of 74.76. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ratio of the top 5% of earners compared to the bottom 5% of employees stood at 20, which was again slightly above its target of 16. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ratio of the 20% to the bottom 80% was better at 1.07, but was still above the target of 0.91. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2025 financial year was the final full year of Fourie’s leadership, who will leave her role on 1 April 2026. She was replaced by Valdene Reddy, formerly the Director of Capital Markets.
<\/p>\n\n\n

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JSE Remuneration Report<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A record year for the JSE <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The high remuneration figures for the JSE follow a record year for the bourse, which reported R1 billion in profit for the first time in its history amid heightened investor interest in South African assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE\u2019s results for 2025 showed that Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) increased to 16.7%, to R1,071 million (2024: R918 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This results in Headline Earnings Per Share growth of 17.7% to 1,329 cents per share. The group\u2019s operating income grew by 14.2% to R3.5 billion, supported by strong delivery across its main businesses: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Capital Markets (+18%),<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Post-Trade Services (+18%),<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Information Services (+10%) and,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • JSE Clear (+10%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The bourse added that the strong performance came amid a renewed national confidence and global interest in South African assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Speaking with BusinessTech, Fourie said that non-resident equity ownership on the JSE increased by 29.3% at the start of 2025 to 32.9% by the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fixed income also remained attractive to foreign investors, with net foreign inflows into South African bonds totalling R122 billion (2024: R82 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The group’s cash balance grew by 12.7% to R3.2 billion, which gave it scope to declare an ordinary dividend of 961 cents per share and a special dividend of 100 cents per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While 2025 was a strong year, recent weeks have been tough for the bourse due to the effects of the Iran war on emerging-market assets and plunging precious-metal prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    R million (unless otherwise stated)<\/th>FY2025<\/th>FY2024<\/th>% change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Revenue<\/td>3 401<\/td>2 971<\/td>14.4%<\/td><\/tr>
    Operating income<\/td>3 535<\/td>3 095<\/td>14.2%<\/td><\/tr>
    Total income<\/td>3 549<\/td>3 167<\/td>12.1%<\/td><\/tr>
    Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT)<\/td>1 203<\/td>1 000<\/td>20.3%<\/td><\/tr>
    Net finance income<\/td>197<\/td>205<\/td>(3.9%)<\/td><\/tr>
    Share of profit from associate<\/td>52<\/td>46<\/td>12.6%<\/td><\/tr>
    Income tax expense<\/td>381<\/td>333<\/td>14.4%<\/td><\/tr>
    Net profit after tax (NPAT)<\/td>1 071<\/td>918<\/td>16.7%<\/td><\/tr>
    Earnings per share (EPS) (cents)<\/td>1 322.3<\/td>1 129.4<\/td>17.1%<\/td><\/tr>
    Headline earnings per share (HEPS) (cents)<\/td>1 328.9<\/td>1 128.6<\/td>17.7%<\/td><\/tr>
    Ordinary dividend per share declared (cents)<\/td>961<\/td>828<\/td>16.0%<\/td><\/tr>
    Special dividend per share declared (cents)<\/td>100<\/td>\u2013<\/td>100%<\/td><\/tr>
    Net cash generated from operations<\/td>1 229<\/td>1 094<\/td>12.3%<\/td><\/tr>
    ROE<\/td>22.0%<\/td>20.2%<\/td>1.8 pts<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The average employee at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange earned over R2 million per year in remuneration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":855449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-855422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-jse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855422","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855422"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855521,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855422\/revisions\/855521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}