Salary and wage increases for 2009

[Yvonne]

Do you enjoy questions like "How long is a piece of string?"

If you break your company down into job categories, and given that your lowest paid employee - a Cleaner earns R3,750.00 per month what increase in earnings should the next level be, and upwards.

Cleaner/Basic Labor
Labour - (example 25% more earnings than the cleaner/basic labourer?)
Skilled Labor - (example 30% more earnings than the Labor)
Admin - (example 50% more than the skilled labor)
Manager -
Owner -

Would be very grateful if you would give this some thought, and give me some guidelines! I know it would depend on experience, technical skill and length of service, just wondering about an approx. average.

I spoke with a really well spoken, bright youngster in a hardware shop who asked if I had work in our company for him, he was earning R1, 600 take home pay a month.

I do feel that some unethical companies will use the current recession to restrict increases this year, given the potential number of workers expected to be retrenched during 2009.
Even wanting to be as fair as possible, balancing possible recession, and making a long term committment to increased payroll when profits are not quaranteed - is a balancing act!

We have been trying to come up with a share of profits scheme for all employees: advice given to me is "don't do it", the law of unintended consequences always seems to have a sting in the tail whenever we have good intentions!

Yvonne

[Dave A]

Good question, Yvonne.

I've got a sense that overall this might be pretty varied by sector, but in my operation one thing that stood out when I looked at your list is that my skilled labour (qualified technicians) earn significantly more than my admin staff.

[Pap_sak]

I have a small shop and have just two staff - so is alot easier to do than a large company. I work out the breakeven point then add a small salary for myself plus intrest on the capital. After this my assistant manager gets 2.5% of all sales and the other gets 1.5%. Works well as I like being able to hand out extra cash at the end of a month - if I win they win. It also works, nether of them have ever taken a day of sick and bother arrive for work before me.

[Yvonne]

Salaries:
I would so appreciate it if some more forum members would take the time to consider my question and give me more feedback.

You have no idea how much it would help.

We have been seeking a new employee - completely untrained and with no experience, the feedback we are getting is that the salary expectation is R10,000 per month for a matriculant.
Due to such vast differences in cities, and actual positions, there is no "right" salary.

I genuinely feel a better quideline in a specific business is the salary %

Yvonne

[Dave A]

We have been seeking a new employee - completely untrained and with no experience, the feedback we are getting is that the salary expectation is R10,000 per month for a matriculant.

Durban =

Feedback from who? Matriculants?

[garthu]

Durban = :roll

That makes me jealous...

But Yvonne, 10K , thats really steep. No qualifications, no experience and 10K , tell them to hoof. Joblessness might give them food for thought or maybe lack of.. They need to understand that experience counts for alot..
I recruited a couple of guys (they did have experience various fields, but i required no experience) for R1800. Odd jobs, flyers delivery etc.

A fresh matric cant be worth more than 3-4k, teach him, if he performs and learns well, then yearly review with performance/comm earnings. I seriously believe that he's got to prove him/herself first before making demands like THAT!

Had a guy give me his CV, he's prepared to start at 2k (still in matric, last year) In 2 years, he proves he's worth 10K, cool, otherwise get lost!
My 2 cents

[IanF]

Yvonne
For a matriculant max is R5k if they have specific training. AFAIK trainee accountants are starting at R7k. As with any job the salaries are all over the place.