{"id":867192,"date":"2026-07-23T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867192"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:10:14","slug":"what-you-need-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/867192\/what-you-need-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to earn to be in the top 1% in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While most formally employed South Africans earn roughly R21,500 per month, the country’s top 1% earn over R2 million every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PayInc Net Salary Index for June 2026 revealed that South Africa\u2019s salary earners take home a nominal average of R21,598 per month and R259,176 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This amount is almost the same as it was one year ago, at R21,483 in June 2025, having increased by only 0.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This amount is calculated based on people who earn a salary, meaning the true average could be lower given South Africa\u2019s high unemployment rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the World Inequality Database<\/a> (WID), South Africa\u2019s top 1% earn more than this, at roughly R1.5 million, as of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WID analyses each country’s national income to determine its earnings figures, rather than using GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The database defines national income as a country\u2019s GDP minus its fixed income and foreign investments, giving an accurate picture of how a country\u2019s wealth is divided amongst its citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PayInc\u2019s data show that average nominal salaries in South Africa have risen by 2.98% since the end of 2024, implying that the salary threshold for the top 1% would be around R1.7 million per year in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201ctop 1%\u201d refers to the wealthiest portion of the population, representing the country\u2019s highest earners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With South Africa\u2019s current population of approximately 63.1 million, the top 1% of the population would be 631,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a better measure would be to look at taxpayers, as that figure shows those who are actually earning a taxable income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has about 26 million individuals registered for tax, but not all of them actually pay income tax because they do not meet the threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, there are about 7.7 million or so taxpayers who are assessed for tax each year, where the bulk of collections comes from those earning at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that smaller base, South Africa’s ‘true’ one-percenters are about 77,000 individuals, and this grouping would carry a much larger earnings threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ranmore Fund Management founder and portfolio manager Sean Peche, the barrier for the top 1% is higher, with those earning over R2 million a year and having R25 million in assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS’ tax stats for 2025 align with this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tax data shows that the entry point for the top 1% of all registered individuals with income is estimated to be above approximately R1.7 million per annum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is derived from data showing that 1.2% of individuals (169,697 people) earn more than R1.5 million, while 0.8% (110,267 people) earn more than R1.817 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in the 1% subgroup of assessed taxpayers, the 77,000-or-so individuals earn more than R2 million per annum\u2014aligning with Peche’s view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared with the country\u2019s average annual salary (~R259,000), the average one-percenter would thus earn around eight times more<\/strong> than the average salaried worker in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top 1% take home less<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the top 1% can earn as much as R2 million a year, not all of this is taken home, with taxes eating a large portion of their earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The take-home pay for a R2 million yearly salary would be roughly R1.3 million, with the largest deduction being Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the wealthy are subject to a wide array of other taxes, including capital gains tax, estate duties, property taxes and inheritance taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-net-worth individuals are a significant part of South Africa\u2019s tax base, as the country has only 5.2 million taxpayers above the tax-free threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means roughly 8.2% of the country\u2019s population contributes to income tax, and nearly half of the total income tax is paid by only 200,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Codera Analytics found that 45% of the total income tax paid in South Africa comes from roughly 200,000 individuals, who earn over R1 million per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes wealthy individuals vital to South Africa, since income tax is the largest single source of government revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 financial year, South Africa\u2019s government collected over R2 trillion in tax revenue, with R767 billion coming from PAYE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAYE is currently the most impactful tax for South Africa\u2019s top 1%, with the highest income bracket taking 45% of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not 45% of a person’s total income, but is taken from all earnings over approximately R1.8 million per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-earning South Africans are also required to pay property taxes, which are assessed annually based on the value of their real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the top 1% pay large amounts to the government every year, South Africa does not have a specific \u201cwealth tax\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wealth tax is levied only on individuals with high net worth, but South Africa\u2019s Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, previously said it would not be effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the most effective way to generate revenue from wealthy citizens is through income taxes, as a wealth tax would be complex and would discourage savings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The average formally employed person in South Africa is already a top earner, but to get to the top 1% requires about eight times as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":823773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2080231648885387289","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[25890,17448,20964,23495,15093,7584,15826],"class_list":["post-867192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-codera-analytics","tag-enoch-godongwana","tag-paye","tag-payinc","tag-uif","tag-ultra-high-net-worth-individual","tag-world-inequality-database"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867192","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867192"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867221,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867192\/revisions\/867221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}