South Africans' take-home pay dips, but it's still higher than a year ago - survey
The BankservAfrica Take-Home Pay Index monitors the average nominal take-home pay of about 4 million salary earners in South Africa.
Short of money, coins taken from pocket. Pexels/Nicola Barts
Motheo Khoaripe, in for Stephen Grootes, interviews independent economist Elize Kruger on The Money Show.
South African salary earners took home a bit less money in March, according to the latest BankservAfrica Take-Home Pay Index (BTPI).
This can be attributed to intensifying economic headwinds both locally and globally, which continue to pressure growth prospects and confidence levels in the country.
Average nominal take-home pay slipped to R17,811 in March, down 2.5% from February’s R18,272.
However, this is still markedly higher than the R15 983 recorded a year earlier in March 2024.
REAL take-home pay, adjusted for inflation, also moderated by 2.9% to R15 343 in March 2025, compared to R15 793 in February - still 8.1% up on a year ago.
Independent economist Elize Kruger says it's important to keep this context in mind.
"Although we saw a slight dip in the month of March, for the first three months of this year - in real terms, take-home pay is still higher than a year ago, so the lower inflation environment HAS indeed impacted positively."
Elize Kruger, Independent Economist
"From that point of view, salary earners should experience a bit more purchasing power in their pocket compared to a year ago."
Elize Kruger, Independent Economist
She attributes the slight BTPI dip in March mainly to a downturn in South Africa's economic prospects for 2025.
"We'd started off quite positively at the beginning of the year, hoping to see a growth rate in the order of 1.7%. Now we know that with all the risks playing out globally with the trade war and a bit of a turnaround in confidence at home given our own political troubles around our budget, we're seeing that we've had to cut our growth rate for this year as well."
Elize Kruger, Independent Economist
On a positive note, Kruger also forecasts that we'll continue to see that inflation 'remains quite moderate' into 2025.
For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article