{"id":858094,"date":"2026-04-22T16:05:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=858094"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:05:54","slug":"warning-over-big-change-for-employees-in-south-africa-coming-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/858094\/warning-over-big-change-for-employees-in-south-africa-coming-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over big change for employees in South Africa coming next week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Legal experts have warned that the new earnings threshold taking effect next Friday (1 May) could have significant financial implications for employers in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Employment and Labour gazetted the changes on <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/857617\/big-change-for-employees-now-earning-over-r22400-a-month-in-south-africa\/\"><strong>Friday, 17 April<\/strong><\/a>, pushing the earnings threshold to <strong>R269,601<\/strong> per annum\u2014an increase of around 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The change means\u00a0<strong>any workers whose salaries have increased beyond R22,467 a month in 2026 will lose certain automatic protections<\/strong> under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, legal experts at Werksmans Attorneys noted that the opposite is also true: <strong>any workers who now fall below the threshold will gain many more protections.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This will have real financial co\u200bnsequences for employers,&#8221; the firm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;An assessment should be conducted by all employers to ensure that the increase and its consequences are accounted for in the workplace.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where necessary, the experts said that employers should make changes to employment contracts or remuneration structures in order to mitigate the risks of any unintended contraventions of the BCEA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes provisions applicable to atypical employment arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the DEL, the purpose of the BCEA is to advance economic development and social justice by giving effect to and regulating the right to fair labour practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sections of the BCEA that are impacted by the threshold change relate to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ordinary hours of work;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Overtime;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Length of working hours;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Averaging of hours of work;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Determination of hours of work by the Minister;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meal intervals;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Daily and weekly rest period;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pay for work on Sundays, night work, and public holidays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The earnings threshold is the level at which workers in South Africa lose automatic protections under the BCEA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new threshold equates to just under\u00a0<strong>R22,467 per month<\/strong>, up from R22,100 in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any employee who earns above that will lose the automatic protection\u2014and any employee who now falls below the threshold gains it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond the financial implications of possibly having to pay more overtime and managing more tightly regulated work hours, employers also have to consider other protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legal firm Bowmans expanded on these, noting that the Labour Relations Act affords additional protections to employees earning below the threshold in atypical employment arrangements, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fixed-term contracts: <\/strong>Where there is no justifiable reason for fixing the term of a contract, such employees may be deemed to be employed indefinitely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Labour brokers:<\/strong> Employees placed by a labour broker to work for a client may be deemed employees of the client if they are not performing a \u2018temporary service\u2019\u2014for example, working for a period exceeding three months or not replacing an employee who is temporarily absent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers have been warned to ensure they adjust their operations and budgets accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are earnings?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-794242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-person-indoors-holding-south-african-rands-with-a-focus-on-the-money-and-blurred-background.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Werksmans, it is important for employers to understand what &#8220;earnings&#8221; are in the context of the earnings threshold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earnings refer to an employee&#8217;s regular annual remuneration before deductions, like income tax, pension, medical and similar payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, they exclude any similar payments made by the employer in respect of the employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Subsistence and transport allowances, achievement awards and payments for overtime worked do not count either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is an important distinction because earnings in this context are not the same as remuneration in terms of the Ministerial Determination regulating the Calculation of Employees&#8217; Remuneration,&#8221; the firm said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legal experts have warned that the new earnings threshold taking effect next Friday (1 May) could have significant financial implications for employers in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":702685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[20928,11709,23216,21960,5114],"class_list":["post-858094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bcea","tag-bowmans","tag-del","tag-earnings-threshold","tag-werksmans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858094","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=858094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858100,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858094\/revisions\/858100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}