On average, cashiers in South Africa’s largest retailers earn more than the national minimum wage, with some companies paying more than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national minimum wage was introduced in South Africa at the start of 2019, establishing a baseline salary of R20 per hour across all industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before this, minimum wages were set by sector, which some argued created wage inequalities across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since its introduction, the national minimum wage has slowly increased to match the cost of living in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, it stands at R30.23 per hour, which amounts to slightly less than R6,000 for a standard 45-hour work week before deductions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2024, Just Share analysed the earnings of cashiers in South Africa and found that Woolworths was the highest-paying employer among the country’s four largest retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The analysis found that the minimum yearly earnings for each retailer were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year later, all four of these retailers had introduced salary increases, but Woolworths remains the highest paying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Woolworths has a “Just Wage Initiative” and ensures that salaries remain safely above the national minimum wage, while providing a host of other benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company also provides medical aid to over 24,000 employees through a partnership with Momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company currently has a minimum wage of R45 per hour, which translates to approximately R105,300 per year for 45-hour workweeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act states that a standard workweek consists of 45 hours, with nine hours per day over five working days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can also consist of eight hours per day across six working days, still equalling 45 hours, and does not include lunch breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comparisons in this article assume a 45-hour workweek and are calculated on base salaries before tax, excluding overtime or other benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comparisons are also based on the percentage wage increases set out in each company’s 2025 financial statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
| <\/td> | 2024 yearly<\/strong><\/td>| 2024 hourly<\/strong><\/td> | 2025 yearly<\/strong><\/td> | 2025 hourly<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> | Woolworths <\/strong><\/td> | R93,600<\/td> | R40.00<\/td> | R105,300<\/td> | R45.00<\/td><\/tr> | Spar<\/strong><\/td> | R59,483<\/td> | R25.42<\/td> | R75,886<\/td> | R32.43<\/td><\/tr> | Shoprite<\/strong><\/td> | R65,263<\/td> | R27.89<\/td> | R70,484<\/td> | R30.12<\/td><\/tr> | Pick n Pay<\/strong><\/td> | R64,537<\/td> | R27.58<\/td> | R69,055<\/td> | R29.51<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n | Spar, Pick n Pay, and Shoprite<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSpar, which was the lowest-paying retailer at the end of 2024, is now the second-highest-paying behind Woolworths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its 2025 integrated report, the company said its lowest-paid employee received R107,435 in total remuneration, which is a combination of guaranteed pay and all other payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This remuneration package was 169 times less than that of the group’s then-CEO, Angelo Swartz, prompting SPAR to announce sweeping changes to its pay policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company announced in July 2026 that it would be increasing the salaries of its lowest-paid employees by 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick n Pay said in its 2025 integrated financial results that the average salary for a cashier was R33.44 per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the 2024 minimum earnings data are multiplied by the announced annual salary increases of 7%, the minimum earnings for an employee amount to R29.91 per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is still above the national minimum wage; however, the group said in its reports that salary increases for 2026 would be 3.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This comes as Pick n Pay is in the midst of a turnaround strategy to return the retailer to profitability after it became technically insolvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group also announced that senior management would not receive salary increases and that other employees’ increases would also be cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoprite’s average hourly salary for cashiers in 2025 was R34.83, and the minimum, based on an 8% increase over the 2024 minimum outlined by Just Share, is R30.12 per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group have an agreement with the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) that guarantees an 8% increase for employees for three years from 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cashiers at South Africa’s largest retailers often earn more than the national minimum wage, with some earning more than others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":834669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2094062846753509684","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2191047101715689","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[5223,18801,4067,7520,9838,949],"class_list":["post-872207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-checkers","tag-just-share","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-shoprite","tag-spar","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872207","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=872207"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872404,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872207\/revisions\/872404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |