How to Read Your South African Payslip

A payslip can look like a wall of numbers and abbreviations, but almost every South African payslip follows the same basic shape. Once you can read it, you can check that you're being paid and taxed correctly — which is worth doing, because errors happen.

At the top you'll find your gross pay (sometimes "total earnings") — everything you've earned before anything is taken off: your basic salary plus any allowances, overtime, commission, or bonus for the period. This is the figure a job offer usually quotes, and it's the starting point for everything else.

Below that come the deductions. The big one is PAYE — the income tax your employer withholds and pays to SARS on your behalf. Next is UIF, your 1% contribution to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (capped, so it stops growing above a certain salary). You may also see medical aid contributions, pension or provident fund contributions, and possibly a retirement annuity, union dues, or a loan repayment — these vary by employer and by person.

The figure that matters most to you is net pay (or "take-home pay") — gross minus all deductions. That's what actually lands in your bank account.

Two things are worth checking. First, look for year-to-date (YTD) totals — most payslips show a running total of earnings and tax for the tax year so far, which is what your IRP5 will be built from. Second, if you want to sanity-check your PAYE, run your gross through our calculator: if the numbers are far apart, it's worth asking your payroll department why. Common innocent explanations include medical aid or retirement deductions the calculator doesn't know about, or a recent change in your pay.

This is general information, not tax advice. To check your PAYE and take-home pay, use the calculator.