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Cape Town - The number of people in South Africa who take home over R100 000 has grown from 5 000 in 2013 to over 11 000 people now, according to BankservAfrica Disposable Salary Index (BDSI) data.
BDSI statistics suggest that South African salary earners in the formal sector may be declining, but those that have kept their jobs have seen substantial increases.
Monthly BDSI data on Wednesday showed that the average South African salary grew just above the estimated rate of inflation, recording a 6.7% year-on-year growth. However, using this data to reflect on past four years showed some interesting trends.
BankservAfrica revealed that the number of people receiving less than R4 000 per month in their disposable salary is now under 17%, down from around 21% four years ago.
This lowest take-home pay group saw a decline of nearly 13% over the same period, which indicates that people are moving out of this category.
The next group of salaries measured over a four year period are the category receiving between R4001 and R10 000 into their bank accounts. This group has declined from 43.3% of the total to just under 35% of the total.
"Previously, this was the biggest group, but now forms the second largest group of people. It has declined by 11.4% since May 2012," the data shows.
The largest group of people - 38.3% - get between R10 001 and R25 000 paid into their accounts, and this category has also seen growth of over 45% in the four years to May 2016.
"The number of people moving up and into this category is astounding as the base was not small," noted BankservAfrica, but "it is the next two groups that have increased at the fastest pace by far".
The number of people earning a disposable salary of over R25 000, but below R50 000, has increased by 60% compared to May 2012, when this category made up less than 6%. They now make up 8.6% of the total.
Those earning a disposable salary of between R50 001 and R100 000 more than doubled, growing 104.9% over the last four years. "While the base is small, they now make up just less than 2% of the total sample."
The final salaries category – which is not used in calculated averages or medians – is those who take home over R100 000, which grew by 218.4%.
"Many of these payments are often retrenchment packages and once-off bonuses. Nonetheless, in 2013 this category was made up of 5 000 people and has increased to over 11 000 people now."
