"Am I earning what I should be?" is one of the hardest questions to answer with a real number — most of what circulates online is a private survey, a recruiter's estimate, or simply made up. South Africa does have an official answer, published quarterly by Statistics South Africa: as at February 2026, the national average monthly salary across the formal non-agricultural sector is R29,997, up 5.9% from R28,322 a year earlier. But that single figure is an average across every industry from mining to retail — the real picture only comes into focus once you break it down.
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The National Average — R29,997 per Month
Stats SA's Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) survey put average monthly earnings, including bonuses and overtime, at R29,997 as at February 2026 — a 0.9% increase quarter-on-quarter and a 5.9% increase year-on-year from R28,322 in February 2025. This is the most current official figure available at the time of writing.
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Open PAYE CalculatorAverage Salary by Industry — Full Breakdown
The national figure blends eight very different industries into one number. Here's how they actually compare, as at February 2026 (average monthly earnings including bonuses and overtime):
| Industry | Average monthly earnings | Y/Y change |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity, gas and water supply | R 61,401 | +10.3% |
| Community, social and personal services | R 36,915 | +6.0% |
| Mining and quarrying | R 36,405 | +7.7% |
| Transport, storage and communication | R 34,394 | +7.3% |
| Financial intermediation, insurance, real estate and business services | R 33,634 | +5.9% |
| National average (all industries) | R 29,997 | +5.9% |
| Manufacturing | R 25,190 | +5.3% |
| Construction | R 24,862 | +3.4% |
| Wholesale/retail trade, repair, hotels and restaurants | R 19,082 | +6.1% |
Source: Stats SA Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES), P0277, March 2026 release — figures are for February 2026, the survey's mid-quarter earnings reference month (distinct from the quarter-end employment count). Includes bonuses and overtime.
The spread is large: electricity, gas and water supply averages more than three times what trade and hospitality pays. This isn't a data error — it reflects genuinely different skill profiles, capital intensity and unionisation levels between industries, and a relatively small, highly-paid workforce in electricity/utilities pulling that sector's average up.
Including vs Excluding Bonuses and Overtime
The headline figures above include bonuses and overtime payments, which can meaningfully inflate a given quarter's number — especially in industries with seasonal bonus cycles. Stats SA also publishes a figure excluding them for most industries, useful if you want a cleaner read on base pay:
| Industry | Including bonuses/overtime | Excluding bonuses/overtime |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity, gas and water supply | R 61,401 | R 57,783 |
| Transport, storage and communication | R 34,394 | R 32,452 |
| Business services | R 33,634 | R 32,896 |
| Community services | R 36,915 | R 35,713 |
| Manufacturing | R 25,190 | R 23,597 |
| Construction | R 24,862 | R 23,907 |
| Trade, hotels and restaurants | R 19,082 | R 18,580 |
Mining is excluded from this comparison — the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, which supplies Stats SA's mining data, doesn't currently split out bonuses and overtime separately.
Average vs Median — Read This Before You Compare Your Own Salary
An average is a mean — add up every salary in the sample and divide by the number of people. That means a relatively small number of very high earners pull the average upward, so more people typically earn below the average than above it. Stats SA's QES publishes averages only, not a median, so there's no official "typical" (middle-of-the-pack) salary figure to compare against — treat R29,997 as a statistical mean across the whole formal sector, not as "what most people earn."
What This Data Does and Doesn't Tell You
QES is an establishment-based survey — Stats SA collects it from roughly 20,000 employers' own payroll records, not from individuals reporting their own pay. That makes it more reliable than a self-reported online salary survey, but it comes with real limits worth knowing before you use it:
- No job-title or role-level breakdown — figures are published by broad industry only (the eight sectors above), not by specific occupation or seniority. Any "average salary for a [job title]" figure you see elsewhere is a private estimate, not this official statistic.
- No province-level breakdown — QES publishes national and industry figures only, not a province-by-province split.
- Formal sector only — informal employment and unregistered work aren't captured.
- Quarterly, with a lag — the "March 2026" release reports earnings as at February 2026, the survey's mid-quarter reference month; treat any figure as a snapshot from its stated month, not real-time.
How to Use This When Job Hunting or Negotiating
Use the industry average as a sanity check, not a target. If an offer in a sector averaging R33,634 comes in well below that, it's worth understanding why — junior role, smaller employer, or a benefits-heavy package structured to look lower in cash terms (see our CTC vs Net Pay guide for that last one specifically). Conversely, an offer above the industry average isn't automatically generous — always convert any salary figure into actual take-home pay with the PAYE Calculator before comparing offers, since two salaries at the same rand figure can pay very differently once tax, UIF and your own deductions are applied.
That industry gap has real consequences beyond the number on a payslip. A R33,634 average in one sector and an R18,500 average in another aren't just different salaries — they're different starting points for what's actually affordable, since a home loan or rent both scale directly off gross income. Two people earning their respective sector's average can land in genuinely different financial positions before either has spent a rand — worth factoring in if you're comparing offers across industries, not just roles.
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