{"id":863098,"date":"2026-06-24T17:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863098"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:21:36","slug":"south-africas-biggest-retailer-has-increased-employee-pay-by-r5000-per-person-every-year-since-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/863098\/south-africas-biggest-retailer-has-increased-employee-pay-by-r5000-per-person-every-year-since-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s biggest retailer has increased employee pay by an average of R5,000 per year since 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African retail giant Shoprite has increased its average employee remuneration by roughly R5,000 a year since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wage growth over the past nine years has outpaced inflation while the company continued to expand its workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1966<\/a> when its first store opened in Wynberg, Shoprite has grown from an eight-store grocery chain in the Western Cape into Africa\u2019s largest fast-moving consumer goods retailer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group now operates more than 3,600 stores across the continent and employs nearly 170,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech analysed Shoprite\u2019s annual reports from 2016 to 2025, and found that the company\u2019s average remuneration increased from R75,122 per year in 2016 to R120,162 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents a total increase of R45,040 over the period, equivalent to an average rise of more than R5,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a monthly basis, the average remuneration increased from approximately R6,260 in 2016 to R10,014 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figures were calculated by dividing total employee remuneration by total staff numbers, then converting the annual amount to a monthly average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a blended average, the calculation includes everyone from entry-level store workers to senior executives and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase amounts to a remuneration growth of around 60% over the nine-year period, exceeding cumulative inflation of 50.8% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data also showed that growth in average remuneration has occurred alongside significant job creation. Shoprite\u2019s workforce increased from 137,775 employees in 2016 to 168,939 employees in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025 alone, the group added 8,723 direct jobs, bringing total employment to more than 168,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the company, many of these positions were first-time employment opportunities designed to provide work experience and training for unemployed South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rapid expansion in headcount helps explain why the average remuneration figure declined slightly from R122,362 in 2024 to R120,162 in 2025, despite total employee compensation increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the breakdown of the average monthly wage based on the data in the integrated reports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Total Employees<\/th>Total Remuneration<\/th>Average Annual Wage<\/th>Increase<\/th><\/tr>
2016<\/strong><\/td>137,775<\/td>R10.35 billion<\/td>R75,122<\/td>–<\/td><\/tr>
2017<\/strong><\/td>143,802<\/td>R10.80 billion<\/td>R75,103<\/td>-R19<\/td><\/tr>
2018<\/strong><\/td>147,478<\/td>R11.40 billion<\/td>R77,300<\/td>+R2,197<\/td><\/tr>
2019<\/strong><\/td>147,268<\/td>R12.50 billion<\/td>R84,879<\/td>+R7,579<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/strong><\/td>141,452<\/td>R12.60 billion<\/td>R89,076<\/td>+R4,197<\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/strong><\/td>142,602<\/td>R13.70 billion<\/td>R96,072<\/td>+R6,996<\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/strong><\/td>145,595<\/td>R14.80 billion<\/td>R101,652<\/td>+R5,580<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/strong><\/td>153,726<\/td>R17.06 billion<\/td>R110,977<\/td>+R9,325<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/strong><\/td>156,911<\/td>R19.20 billion<\/td>R122,362<\/td>+R11,385<\/td><\/tr>
2025<\/strong><\/td>168,939<\/td>R20.30 billion<\/td>R120,162<\/td>-R2,200<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td><\/td>Average increase per year<\/strong><\/td>+R5,004<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Massive employee benefit drive over the years <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As more entry-level positions were added, employee numbers grew faster than the overall remuneration pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total amount paid in salaries and benefits increased from R19.2 billion in 2024 to R20.3 billion in 2025. Shoprite stated that no salaries were reduced during the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 2025 financial year, reflected in the company\u2019s 2026 remuneration review, general staff and bargaining-unit employees received annual wage increases of 8.0%, while management received increases of 5.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite has also maintained wage levels above the national minimum wage. By 2025, general assistants earned an average of R32.43 per hour, which was 12.6% above the national minimum wage. Cashiers earned an average of R31.85 per hour, or 9.4% above the minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past several years, the retailer has introduced additional employee benefits. In 2022, it established the Shoprite Employee Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an evergreen, broad-based black economic empowerment employee trust that holds 40 million shares on behalf of qualifying employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trust distributes benefits linked to shareholder dividends and has paid out more than R1 billion to eligible employees by October 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has also prioritised larger wage increases for frontline staff than for management and expanded employee discount programmes across its retail businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the retailer has introduced interest-free earned wage access through a partnership with Paymenow and launched a wellness programme that provides free counselling and advisory services to employees and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remuneration growth comes as Shoprite continues to expand its operations across South Africa, thanks to Checkers Sixty60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest interim results<\/a>, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said the group increased sales from continuing operations by 7.2% to approximately R136.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was supported by growth across its supermarket brands and the continued expansion of its Checkers Sixty60 on-demand delivery platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analysis of Shoprite\u2019s annual reports from 2016 to 2025 shows that the company\u2019s average remuneration increased from R75,122 a year in 2016 to R120,162 in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":862736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[20766,7520,853],"class_list":["post-863098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-national-minimum-wage-nmw","tag-shoprite","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863098","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863098"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864559,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863098\/revisions\/864559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}