South African wages have risen modestly.

According to a new Stats SA report: “The year-on-year gross earnings [of people in employment] increased by R32.8 billion or 3.4% between June 2024 and June 2025…[and that]…basic salary/wages increased by R31.2 billion or 3.6% between June 2024 and June 2025.”

The Common Sense’s Economics and Policy Editor Bheki Mahlobo said that: “the lifts in gross earnings and in salaries and wages are very modest and bode ill for consumer spending levels and hence the broader South African economy.”

Mahlobo said: “Consumer spending accounts for around 60% of South Africa’s GDP, and is therefore a very important driver of economic growth. But more than a decade of hostile government policy and threats of expropriation have depressed investor sentiment and therefore growth and job creation, with the consequences that households have been placed under great financial strain.”

An index of consumer sentiment tracked by The Common Sense shows that, after lifting in the period from 1994 to 2008, consumer sentiment subsequently fell sharply and has continued falling into the present.