The average government salary increased from R43,150 in 1995 to R566,241 in 2024

In 1995, total public servant compensation was R55 billion. It ballooned to R724 billion in the 2023/24 financial year, causing severe strain on state finances.

Many economists, including Moeletsi Mbeki and Dawie Roodt, have called on the government to cut the public service salary bill.

Mbeki said South Africa’s civil service is the highest paid globally as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

The IMF and World Bank studies estimated that South Africa’s public sector wage bill has consistently consumed between 12% and 13% of GDP.

A Centre for Risk Analysis report showed that South Africa has the third-highest government wage bill as a share of GDP among 20 major economies.

The public sector wage bill is 3.5% higher than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average.

“South Africa’s wage bill is about 10.5% of the GDP and towers over economic powerhouses such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan,” the report noted.

While the percentages differ due to the complexity of what constitutes public sector wages, it is not disputed that South Africa spends too much money on civil servants.

The IMF highlighted that the government wage bill accounted for most of the state’s expenditure increase in South Africa. This, in turn, caused a rapid rise in public debt.

In 2008/09, South Africa’s gross loan debt amounted to R627 billion, or 26% of GDP. It has now ballooned to R5.21 trillion, or 73.9% of GDP.

Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt warned that this spending pattern poses long-term economic stability and growth risks.

Mbeki said South Africa needs to reduce civil service pay to a level comparable to that of similar countries and invest the saved money in productive assets.

He said the government must cut public sector salaries to around 6% to 7% of GDP to ignite economic growth. This translates to a roughly 50% cut in the civil service salary bill.

Roodt agreed, saying most South African civil servants are overpaid and underworked. It has reached crisis levels, and the country can no longer afford the growing salary bill.

Big increase in the average government salary

The number of public servants in South Africa has not increased significantly over the last thirty years. In 1995, there were 1.27 million public servants. Today, there are 1.28 million.

However, the government’s salary bill ballooned. In 1995, total public servant compensation stood at R55 billion.

In the 2023/24 financial year, South Africa spent R724 billion on public servant compensation.

This far-above-inflation increase in the government salary bill is best expressed in the average salary of state employees.

In 1995, the average government employee earned R43,150 per year. In 2024, the average salary increased to R566,241 per year.

Most of this rapid increase in the average government employee salary occurred under the leadership of former President Jacob Zuma and former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The Zuma administration approved a huge government salary increase, which put tremendous pressure on state finances.

The state did not have the money for these increases and relied on debt to fund them. It caused government debt to increase from R627 billion to R5.21 trillion in fifteen years.

The chart below shows how the average government salary in South Africa changed from 1995 to 2025.