{"id":879996,"date":"2026-10-16T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879996"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T06:48:08","slug":"how-much-the-top-200-ceos-get-paid-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/879996\/how-much-the-top-200-ceos-get-paid-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How much the top 200 CEOs get paid in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The total remuneration for South Africa’s CEOs rose by an average of 9% in 2026, with most executives seeing large salary increases from long-term incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 2026 Directors’ Remuneration and Trends Report<\/a> found that the average salary of both CEOs and CFOs had increased in the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report analyses the earnings of both executive and non-executive directors across the 200 largest JSE-listed companies between March 2025 and February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks at the total remuneration packages for the country’s executives, along with their earnings from incentive schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2026, PwC found that the median income of South Africa’s top CEOs had risen by 9%, largely driven by incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total median remuneration for the CEOs of the JSE’s top 200 companies increased from R21.3 million to R23.2 million in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlighted that while overall remuneration had increased by 9%, the total guaranteed pay for CEOs had increased by only 6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, the median guaranteed total pay was roughly R8.8 million, compared to R8.4 million the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest increase in CEO earnings came from long-term incentives, which rose by 67% year-on-year to approximately R9.8 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CFOs had a smaller total increase of 7%, from R12.6 million in 2025 to R13.5 million the next year, also largely driven by long-term incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total guaranteed pay for CFOs increased by only 1% year-on-year, while earnings from long-term incentive plans rose by 54%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incentive schemes reward company directors for meeting specific business objectives, and PwC noted that these have become the driving force behind executive remuneration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PwC rewards partner Makhosazana Mabaso said the heavy weighting of incentive schemes demonstrates a shift among South Africa’s largest companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For boards, the focus now is on making sure reward remains connected to performance and sustainable value creation, while balancing the expectations of executives, employees and shareholders,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher than the average<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Between March 2025 and March 2026, average monthly earnings paid to employees increased by 5.9%, lower than the 9% increase for CEOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first quarter of 2026, Stats SA found that the average employee in South Africa earns R29,997 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While median executive and directors’ remuneration was higher than the national average increase, PwC found that company boards were largely in favour of the increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Shareholder support for remuneration remains strong, even as expectations around transparency and accountability continue to grow,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its report found that support for implementation reports increased from 83.8% in 2025 to 89.6% the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While remuneration policies are largely supported, PwC noted specific areas which raise questions from board members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Substantial sign-on awards without performance conditions and large LTI grants without adequate rationale also continue to attract scrutiny,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scrutiny has come as companies have more transparency requirements placed on them by amendments to the Companies Act, which took effect in May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PwC reward partner, Leila Ebrahimi, said these new regulations should be seen as an opportunity for businesses to better understand remuneration decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Better pay data enables organisations to identify patterns, uncover potential gaps and make more informed remuneration decisions,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Used effectively, these insights can help organisations strengthen their reward strategies, support fair outcomes and ensure pay practices remain aligned with business objectives and workforce expectations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Average remuneration increases for CEOs of the top 200 JSE-listed companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>2026<\/strong><\/td>2025<\/strong><\/td>Change %<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total guaranteed pay<\/td>R8.8 million<\/td>R8.4 million<\/td>6%<\/td><\/tr>
Short-term incentive<\/td>R9.2 million<\/td>R6.5 million<\/td>42%<\/td><\/tr>
Long-term incentive<\/td>R9.8 million<\/td>R5.9 million<\/td>67%<\/td><\/tr>
Total remuneration<\/td>R23.2 million<\/td>R21.3 million<\/td>9%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: PwC 2026 Directors’ Remuneration and Trends report.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Average remuneration increases for CFOs of the top 200 JSE-listed companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>2026<\/strong><\/td>2025<\/strong><\/td>Change %<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total guaranteed pay<\/td>R5.6 million<\/td>R5.5 million<\/td>1%<\/td><\/tr>
Short-term incentive<\/td>R5.4 million<\/td>R3.9 million<\/td>39%<\/td><\/tr>
Long-term incentive<\/td>R4.9 million<\/td>R3.1 million<\/td>54%<\/td><\/tr>
Total remuneration<\/td>R13.5 million<\/td>R12.6 million<\/td>7%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: PwC 2026 Directors’ Remuneration and Trends report.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report from PwC analysed the earnings of directors and executives in the JSE’s top 200 companies, with the median CEO earnings increasing by 9%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":858457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2110989385692823850","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2238845936935805","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18023238095712372","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26822,2407,1809],"class_list":["post-879996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-makhosazana-mabaso","tag-pwc","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879996","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=879996"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880087,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879996\/revisions\/880087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}