Eskom pay reality: Inside the R38,000 average salary debate

Key topics.Unionised Eskom workers earn ~R38,150/month on averageHeadline “average cost” inflated by exec pay, bonuses, benefits7% annual wage hikes aimed at retaining critical skills.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Hanno Labuschagne.Solidarity secretary-general Gideon Du Plessis said most Eskom workers were earning well below the average annual cost per employee of R1.027 million.In a recent opinion piece in Rapport, Du Plessis said the average remuneration of the power utility’s bargaining unit workers was R457,800 per year, or R38,150 per month.The bargaining unit consists of all employees below middle management, including administrative staff, artisans, skilled technicians, and engineers.Solidarity is the third-largest union among these employees, preceded by the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.Du Plessis argued it was wrong to calculate Eskom’s cost per employee by dividing its total wage bill of R43.16 billion between its roughly 42,000 workers.He explained that this amount included top management’s salaries and bonuses, benefits, overtime payments, administrative costs, employee taxes, and provision for leave.Du Plessis recognised the negative public reaction to increases above inflation but argued that this was necessary to retain essential skills at Eskom.“Most workers whose salaries were negotiated currently work at power stations and played a critical role in avoiding load-shedding for nearly 350 consecutive days,” he said.Du Plessis said the Eskom–union agreement for a 7% annual increase over the next three years would ensure a motivated workforce, stable labour relations, and potentially help avoid further power cuts.Eskom does not publicly disclose remuneration for bargaining-unit or middle-management employees and is generally less forthcoming about how salaries break down by pay grade.The only employees whose remuneration was detailed in its integrated reports were executives and board members.However, even after excluding these employees’ costs from the calculation, the average cost per employee remained over R1.26 million.MyBroadband’s calculations suggest that the average remuneration of middle management — which is currently a complete mystery — could be inflating the average cost per employee.Big changes for Eskom’s remuneration reportingMoneyweb previously obtained a breakdown of average bargaining unit salaries across 10 pay grades for the 2017/18 period.MyBroadband adjusted these figures using the increases Eskom implemented in the eight years up to 2025/26, which were as follows:1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019 — 7.5%1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 — 7%1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021 — 7%1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 — 1.5%1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 — 7%1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 — 7%, plus a once-off R10,000 payment1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025 — 7%, plus a once-off R10,000 payment1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 — 7%We found that the best-paid bargaining unit employee on the T13/P13 paygrade likely earned R974,976 per year, or R81,248 per month.The fact that the average cost per employee remained about R50,000 higher, even after excluding executive pay, suggested that middle managers were earning well above the average.With the incoming full implementation of the Companies Amendment Act 16 of 2024, Eskom will need to provide far more detail about its remuneration.Bowmans explained that the legislation significantly enhances transparency requirements in remuneration and vertical pay-gap disclosures for public and state-owned companies.Certain provisions took effect on 27 December 2024, but the commencement date for the remuneration and pay-gap disclosure requirements under sections 30A and 30B must still be proclaimed.Section 30B(3) of the Amendment Act mandates that public and state-owned companies disclose the following:total remuneration of the highest-paid employeetotal remuneration of the lowest-paid employeeaverage total remuneration of all employeesmedian total remuneration of all employeesratio between the top 5% highest-paid employees and the bottom 5% lowest-paid employeesCompanies must also break down total remuneration into constituent elements, reflecting its composition..This article was first published on MyBroadband and was republished with permission

Eskom pay reality: Inside the R38,000 average salary debate

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