South Africa's formal non agricultural wage bill has declined in real terms since 2023, despite employers paying almost R110bn more in nominal terms.

Quarterly Employment Statistics data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) show that gross earnings in the formal non-agricultural economy increased from about R917bn in June 2023 to approximately R1.025tn in June 2026.

This amounts to a nominal increase of about 11.8% over the three years.

However, Stats SA's gross earnings figures are reported at current prices, meaning they have not been adjusted for inflation.

An analysis by The Common Sense, using Stats SA's Consumer Price Index to adjust the figures for inflation, finds that the June 2023 wage bill would be worth approximately R1.041tn in June 2026 prices.

This means the formal wage bill fell by approximately 1.6% in real terms between June 2023 and June 2026.

Gross earnings include salaries and wages, bonuses, and overtime payments made to employees.

The distinction between nominal and real earnings is important. A larger wage bill measured in Rands does not necessarily mean that the purchasing power represented by those earnings has increased.

In this case, employers paid approximately R108bn more to formal non-agricultural workers in June 2026 than three years earlier, but the purchasing power of the total wage bill was slightly lower than it had been in June 2023.