How much you need to earn to be considered middle-class in SA
Have you ever wondered how much you need to earn to be considered middle-class in South Africa?
Knowing whether you are a middle-class earner in South Africa could be quite difficult, considering the country's high living costs.
South Africa is also one of the most unequal countries in the world due to the extreme gap between the rich and the poor.
A country's middle-class can also only be defined by considering the context of the entire population, which naturally means the middle class looks different in each country.
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A shocking statistic shared by Business Tech states that due to South Africa's 32.9% unemployment rate, even those who earn R1 per month through a job are considered part of the 16.2-million employed.
According to Stats SA, the average monthly salary for South Africans in the formal sector is R26,894.
Research from the University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing argues that earning R22,000 makes a household middle-class.
Research and analytics firm Eighty20 has also released its own statistics in its latest Credit Stress Report, which defined the middle-class as households with an income of nearly R25,000 a month and a personal income of R15,000.
The Bureau for Economic Research (BER) considers a middle-income household earning between 5,000 and R20,000 per month.
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At the same time, the Discovery Bank SpendTrend24 report stated that middle-class individuals earned between R8,000 and R29,000 per month.
Business Tech averaged out all these estimates and concluded that the middle class in South Africa earns an income of just above R20,000.
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Image: Instagram/ Schalk Brits