Africa’s most valuable banking group, FirstRand, has hiked the minimum pay for its SA employees as competition for talent heats up in financial services, which is amplified by public minimum pay disclosures by the main companies in the sector.
“In response to market forces, Remco (remuneration committee) approved above-average adjustments to the group’s banking role minimum salaries in order to remain competitive in attracting and retaining skills at this level.
“The banking role minimum pay was increased by 20.9% from R215,000 per annum to R260,000 per annum,” the lender said in its 2025 annual report.
Nedbank earlier this year increased its minimum wage by 6.7% to R240,000 a year with effect from this month.
Rival Absa hiked its minimum pay 8.7% to R250,000 — also with effect from April. The country’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank, pays a minimum salary of R258,390 for its unionised employees in SA.
Investec’s last annual report shows the group’s minimum salary for employees in SA is R273,000 a year.
Pay gap
The Anglo-SA lender went further and revealed the pay gap between the top 5% best-paid SA employees and the bottom 5%. The annual report shows that average single-figure total remuneration of the top 5% SA-based employees was R10.1m a year in the 2024 financial year, while the bottom 5% pocketed just R297,000.
Investec is expected to release its next annual report at the end of June 2026, which might reveal an increase in its minimum pay for SA employees.
Many companies have held back publishing their pay gap analysis until the amendments to the Companies Act are promulgated.
According to the amendments, public and state-owned companies will be required to develop a detailed remuneration policy and report. This must include data on the earnings of directors and officers, the highest- and lowest-paid employees, and the average and median remuneration for all employees. The aim is to highlight pay disparities within companies and to enhance transparency.
Insurance groups have also begun disclosing their minimum pay, with Old Mutual paying about R16,000 a month and Santam R15,000.
Correction: October 31 2025
This article has been updated to correct the Investec minimum salary figure and the date of the publication of its next annual report
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