South African (SA) workers are facing a sharp squeeze on their disposable income, with real take-home wages dropping to their lowest level in roughly two years.<\/p>\n
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According to the latest PayInc Net Salary Index, the average nominal net salary crept up marginally by 0.2% to R21 510 ($1 180) in May 2026. However, this nominal growth masks a far harsher economic reality when adjusted for inflation. Hit by rising costs, real net salaries fell by 0.3% month-on-month and a staggering 2.8% compared to May 2025, leaving the average real salary at just R20 262 ($1 112).<\/p>\n
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Significant fuel price spikes over the past three months pushed consumer inflation from a low of 3.0% in February to 4.5% in May. With real net salaries down 1.7% for the first five months of 2026, growth in household consumption expenditure flattened to a mere 0.1% in the first quarter. Consumers are aggressively cutting back on discretionary spending like restaurants, food, and beverages to afford necessities like transport and utilities.<\/p>\n
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This strain caused the FNB\/BER Consumer Confidence Index to suffer a steep 12-point drop to -19 in the second quarter , while the RMB\/BER Business Confidence Index fell by 8 points to 39.<\/p>\n
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Despite the grim data, a tentative Middle East peace deal has driven international Brent crude oil prices lower to around $77 per barrel. If these lower prices hold, SA motorists could see a substantial reprieve at the pumps on 1July, with petrol estimated to drop by around R2.50 ($0.14) per litre and diesel by R3.75 ($0.21) per litre. This expected drop in fuel costs could cool domestic inflation and encourage the SA Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to pause interest rates at its late-July meeting. However, experts warn that local companies will likely maintain a conservative, wait-and-see approach to hiring and spending for the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-37940","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA workers are facing a sharp squeeze on their disposable income","published_date":"2026-06-24 14:24:28","news_description":"SA workers are facing a sharp squeeze on their disposable income","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37941,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37940\/revisions\/37941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}