SA’s take-home salaries taking strain

“Last month the increase in disposable salaries of 6.5% on a year ago barely beat inflation‚ which sits at 6.3%‚” says Dr Caroline Belrose‚ Head of Knowledge and Risk Services at BankservAfrica.

The BDSI average monthly take-home pay for March 2016 was R12‚501.

The BankservAfrica Private Pensions Index increased by 7.4% for the year. Its average pension in the month was R6‚075.

The trend in total payments of disposable salaries and pensions shows that the consumer will not be in a very strong position this year‚ the company said in a statement.

The slowdown in disposable salary growth is also impacted by personal income taxes that were effectively raised again by not compensating for inflation. This is called bracket creep and means that as people’s salaries or pensions go up to compensate for inflation‚ they enter a higher tax bracket‚ therefore in real terms they are taking home the same amount.

The salary of those in the middle of the salary spectrum outpaced those at the higher end due to more people slowly moving up the employment ladder. The median salary shows a growth of 7.2%‚ which is again better than the average salary.

Mike Schüssler‚ Chief Economist at Economists dotcoza‚ said: “Within the next few months we believe that retail sales will no longer be growing at a real rate of 4% or even 3%. Interest rate hikes and slower salary increases based on last year’s low inflation numbers will limit the employee’s ability to spend. This is bad news for large item sales like cars and furniture. It is likely that retailers will struggle for real growth in the next few months.”