Bad news for South Africans as take-home pay continues to shrink
Disposable salaries have not kept pace with inflation — but pensioners are doing better, and could be keeping the economy alive
SOUTH African workers took home much smaller disposable salaries in August 2016 than they did in August 2015, as inflation accelerated but growth in wages slowed.Lower disposable incomes mean households have less to spend on goods and services after paying taxes, and this affects economic growth.The BankservAfrica disposable salary index, released on Wednesday, shows employees took home 2.5% less in August than a year earlier — the third consecutive month of declines in real disposable salaries."While workers received salary increases in nominal terms, the real value for these ended up being lower due to the higher rate of inflation," BankservAfrica head of knowledge and risk services Caroline Belrose said.Inflation was 4.6% year on year in August 2015 and had accelerated to 5.9% year on year by August 2016.Above-inflation increases in medical insurance costs and real personal income tax contributed to the growing gap between gross and net salaries, BankservAfrica said.The disposabl...
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