SA’s take-home pay increases are returning to their pre-Covid trend

SOUTH Africa’s real take-home pay increased by just 0.7 percent in March, with the average salary reaching R15 092 in nominal terms and R12 749 in real terms. The BankservAfrica Takehome Pay Index (BTPI) for March released yesterday showed that average salaries were returning to their preCovid trend.

BankServAfrica said the number of employees in the broader payment system of formal employers from larger companies has recovered fast as the economy has reopened. It said the growth in March 2021 came off the low base from March 2020 when the country was placed under a hard lockdown.

When the hard lockdown began, the BTPI reported a drop in the number of payments made to daily and weekly workers. But now the year-onyear change came in at under 1 percent, which marks the turning point for employment numbers improving from the depth of the pandemic.

Shergeran Naidoo, BankservAfrica’s head of stakeholder engagements, said the number of weekly and monthly take-home payments were beginning to take off with slight increases.

“These figures show a return to the pre-Covid trend as the number of employees in the broader payment system of formal employers from larger companies is in a better state after the economy’s reopening.”

Data from StatsSA indicates that government employment increased in the third and fourth quarters of 2020.

Based on this, BankservAfrica assumed that the private sector has only recovered by about 95 percent since its data has a larger share of government employees in its take-home data. It said the 95 percent recovery of private sector jobs for larger private sector jobs was good news, but smaller firms and the informal sector have a long way to go for recovery.

Chief economist at economists. co.za Mike Schüssler said the BTPI was gradually returning to normal.

He said the improvements were a “recovery”as actual employment numbers were still slightly below the BTPI’s average. “In March 2021, we were seeing a small increase in the number of weekly and monthly take-home payments while daily payments continue on a declining trend,” Schüssler said.

“All in all, it is good news that 95 percent of private sector jobs in larger firms have recovered. But, with daily and weekly payments still far below normal, one can assume that smaller firms and the informal sector have a long way to go for recovery.”