LISTEN | Stubborn wage gap: black South Africans earn the least, below national average

Black South African households earn the lowest wages, below the national average and 21% of what their white counterparts earn.

This is according to the recently released 2022/2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey data from Stats SA. The survey revealed the average income for white-headed households was R676,375 per year, while Indian/Asian households earn R417,431, coloured households R260,816 and black African households R143,632.

The national average income across all households stands at R204,359 per year.

The presentation was made to parliament's planning, monitoring and evaluation committee on Friday.

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Stats SA reported most income is derived from work, accounting for 68.8%, followed by 12.5% from rent on owned dwellings and 10.4% from pensions and social insurance (including social grants). Other income sources make up 4.5%, while income from capital is 1.5% and income from individuals accounts for 1.3%.

The Western Cape has the highest average household income at R356,651 per year, followed by Gauteng at R250,646. Other provinces fall below the national average of R204,359, with the Eastern Cape and Limpopo the lowest — R137,944 and R128,309 respectively.

The DA’s Darren Bergman raised concern about unaccounted for data, stating: “I’m beginning to believe part of what’s holding our economy together is the informal sector. With the informal sector I think it's hard to understand what the income is and what the spending is — there’s nowhere to declare what you’ve earned.”

With a possible VAT increase looming, Bergman called for more food to be zero-rated to alleviate economic pressure.

The MK Party's Lucky Montana also called for more zero-rated food, as well as policy redress. “We’ve got good policies but the problem is implementation. These stats tell us we need a major review of policy. These policies can’t be correct when they reproduce what we’ve inherited before the end of apartheid,” he said.

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