{"id":872170,"date":"2026-08-26T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872170"},"modified":"2026-08-26T13:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:20:03","slug":"9-months-of-salary-pain-comes-to-an-end-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/872170\/9-months-of-salary-pain-comes-to-an-end-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"9 months of salary pain comes to an end in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African salary earners have seen their first monthly real salary increases following a period of heightened inflation, but the yearly figures still make for grim reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to the PayInc Net\u00a0Salary\u00a0Index, which tracks the take-home\u00a0pay\u00a0of approximately 2.1 million South African\u00a0salary\u00a0earners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PayInc said that salary\u00a0earners saw a further modest improvement in nominal net\u00a0salaries\u00a0in July 2026, but warned that ongoing economic pressures continue to exert strain on salary growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe average nominal net\u00a0salary\u00a0increased further to R21,642 in July, 0.2% higher than in June, and up by 2.2% compared to a year ago,\u201d said Shergeran Naidoo, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at PayInc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nominal net\u00a0salaries\u00a0increased by only 1.6% during the first seven months of 2026, compared to the 3.7% increase for the full year in 2025, highlighting the strain in the labour market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the continued increase in nominal net\u00a0salaries\u00a0is encouraging, the broader picture shows that\u00a0salary\u00a0growth remains subdued,\u201d said Elize Kruger, Independent Economist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth African households continue to navigate a challenging economic environment, making the recovery in purchasing power particularly important for consumer confidence and spending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer inflation also moderated to 4.3% in July from 5.0% in June, which was the first decline in five months. The war in Iran has caused massive increases in fuel prices across South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, large reductions in fuel prices during July contributed to the improvement and provided some relief to consumers. This lower inflation was also a positive for real net salaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PayInc Net\u00a0Salary\u00a0Index increased by 0.4% month-on-month in real terms in July<\/strong>, which was the first monthly increase in nine months.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, at R20 269 in July, the index remained 2.2% below year-ago levels, while year-to-date statistics suggest that net salaries are down by 2.1% in real terms. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe moderating inflation provided some breathing room for\u00a0salary\u00a0earners in July and contributed to the first monthly improvement in real net\u00a0salaries\u00a0in nine months,\u201d said Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, purchasing power remains weaker than a year ago, and this continued erosion has implications for household spending and consumer confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More pain on the cards <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Economist Elize Kruger<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The monthly relief could also be temporary, with renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East placing upward pressure on international oil prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This raises the chances of higher domestic fuel prices and renewed inflationary pressures. Salary trends also continue to reflect the challenging operating environment facing South African businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salary trends also continue to reflect the challenging operating environment in South African businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of weaker economic conditions, higher input costs, and pressure on company profitability has constrained\u00a0salary\u00a0expectations, although\u00a0wage\u00a0outcomes differ considerably across sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), average private-sector salary increases moderated to 4.0% in 2025, down from 4.1% in 2024, compared with an average of 5.4% in both 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wage\u00a0growth also varied considerably between industries. In Q4 2025, nominal remuneration growth per worker also ranged from 4.6% in manufacturing to 8.8% in gold mining, reflecting uneven salary growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSalary\u00a0growth cannot be viewed separately from the health of the broader economy and labour market,\u201d noted Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBusinesses facing pressure on profitability tend to postpone investment decisions, while there is \u00a0less scope for meaningful\u00a0salary\u00a0increases in a strained environment.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public sector remuneration remains incredibly high, rising by 8.6% in 2025 and 9.1% in 2024, as per South African Reserve Bank data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when including private-sector remuneration, average nominal remuneration growth of 5.0% and 5.2% was recorded in 2025 and 2024, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unionised employees have also typically secured higher wage increases than their non-unionised counterparts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, 2026 looks set to be another challenging year for South African salary earners. Nominal salary growth is tracking below 2025 levels, while inflation has eroded the real value of said earnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJuly represents a welcome improvement, particularly after nine consecutive months without monthly real\u00a0salary\u00a0growth, but the pressure on households has not disappeared,\u201d said Kruger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA sustained recovery in purchasing power will depend on stronger\u00a0salary\u00a0growth, contained inflation and, importantly, an improvement in the broader economic and employment environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African salary earners have seen their first monthly real salary increases in 2026, but yearly figures are still bleak. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":808603,"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":"2092583049812660677","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2187202205433512","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18103555228940912","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[23495],"class_list":["post-872170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-payinc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872170","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=872170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872181,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872170\/revisions\/872181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}