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We all knew on some level that the lockdown had negatively impacted the salaries of a large number of South Africans, but the extent to which this was the case remained largely unclear.

Now reports are rolling in that look into where we are in terms of take-home pay and it’s looking pretty grim, with low-income earners suffering, and monthly salaried workers facing the reality that one in five private-sector jobs are at risk.

BankservAfrica’s latest data shows that the total salaries paid in May declined significantly, reports IOL.

“The BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index for May decreased by 0.2 percent in real terms despite the lower inflation and decrease in personal income tax,” says Shergeran Naidoo, Head of Stakeholder Engagements: BankservAfrica.

“While take-home pay remains stable, the average hides the big disparities in the employment context. The Covid-19 lockdown has impacted employees taking home less than R6 000 per month far more than those earning more than R40 000 per month,” says Naidoo.

“However, BankservAfrica’s overall take-home pay data for May reveals the likely growing rate of unemployment.”

On average, employees taking home more than R40 000 a month over the past three months increased by 8,1% since last year, while the number of payments made to those earning less than R10 000 decreased by a staggering 13,4%.

At the same time, the number of take-home salaries averaging between R10 000 and R39 999 increased by 1,8%.

So, while the average take-home pay, as measured by BankservAfrica, decreased by 0.2 percent after inflation, the typical or median take-home pay increased by 4.2 percent after inflation,” says Naidoo.

However, the overall amount paid to all employees via the BankservAfrica system declined by -7.2 percent in real terms, reflecting the overall impact of the Covid-19 crisis – even with the UIF Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) payouts, tax reductions and pension payment holidays.

The lockdown has had the highest impact on people earning less than R10 000 a month, which includes part-time and contract workers. BankservAfrica estimates that the number of payments for casual employees has been cut by 26% and weekly payments 9%.

Monthly payments have, however, increased by 2%.

The above is also the reason that the median salary – the salary in the middle of all salaries – rose dramatically. The UIF, lower personal income tax rates, lower interest on company loans and garnishee orders, pension contribution holidays have counteracted impacts such as salary cuts.

Taking all of this into account it’s fair to assume that around 20% of all private sector companies didn’t pay salaries in the last month, which indicates a massive spike in unemployment.

Overall, the average take-home pay in South Africa currently sits at, if we take inflation into account, R14 112 a month.

That might seem workable, but when you look at the country as a whole, very few people are taking that, or anything close to that, home at the end of the month.

[source:iol]