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SA’s rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Last week, the Sunday Times published their annual Rich List, which shows what the richest of the rich in South Africa earn and how much they own. This goes a long way to explaining why workers make the wage demands they do.

AllAfrica.com says that in 2012, our total yearly wage bill was R1.5 trillion. This amount is made up of the R6.6 billion being earned by South Africa’s top-paid directors – which equates to them earning an average of R2.2 million per year or a gross salary of R186 314 per month.

The news site also states that the top 10 directors of companies listed on the JSE earned a staggering R1.1 billion between them, which equates to an average of R11 million each.

However, this can’t compare with what David Hathorn: CEO of Mondi earned this year – a whopping R76 million… Fifty percent of the average workers in the formal sector, according to the most recent data from Statistics South Africa, earn R33 600 a year (R2 800 a month).

No wonder we’re plagued with wage-related strikes…