South Africans’ average take home pay declined almost 5% in December, ending a dismal year at a low point, with signs that record load shedding and rampant inflation took its toll on households, Africa’s largest automated clearing house BankservAfrica said on Wednesday.

Average pay, as measured in BankservAfrica’s Take-home Pay Index, slipped to R14 663 in December, when more than 200 000 new jobs were added, probably reflecting the fact that many new jobs are likely to have been created in lower-income categories, the firm said.

The index reflects the trend in almost 4 million monthly salary payments, which represents about 37% of all non-farm employees, or formal sector staff, in SA’s labour market. For 2022, the average nominal take-home pay came to R15 055 per month compared to R15 166 in 2021, thus basically moving sideways.

BankservAfrica said data was showing that income growth was lagging behind inflation, which had reached a 13-year high in 2022. This is confirmed by data that reflected a 6.9% year-on-year decline in the real average salary recorded in 2022, compared to 2021.

“This reflects a notable erosion of South Africans’ purchasing power, a trend that filtered through to lacklustre consumption expenditure by households in 2022,” independent economist Elize Kruger said in a statement.

Read more @news24

[Views]