IT salaries in South Africa compared to the UK

[MrGray]

Barring the meaningless of using averages, it is pointless to make anything of UK salaries being 2x to 3x more in Rand terms since the cost of living is also 2x to 3x more...

 

[cguy]

Everybody likes getting offer(zen)ed free merch.

On a serious note, is there anyway of getting an average with the least amount of noise from crap sources?

Not a good source until you’ve got colleagues to rate yourself against and salary data to weigh up how fair your pay is. Blind and Levels tell you what other people are getting, but often this requires degrees from well regarded universities and such.

For your first job, probably the best sources are job ads and working friends.

 

[Ancalagon]

Barring the meaningless of using averages, it is pointless to make anything of UK salaries being 2x to 3x more in Rand terms since the cost of living is also 2x to 3x more...

Only rent is. Eating out is also more expensive, but not 2-3x more expensive.

You actually pay less tax in the UK, and you don't get double taxed. For instance, I don't pay taxes that fund the police and then also pay for private security. I just pay my taxes, and those taxes are lower than what you would pay in SA.

I have much more disposable income here.

 

[cguy]

Barring the meaningless of using averages, it is pointless to make anything of UK salaries being 2x to 3x more in Rand terms since the cost of living is also 2x to 3x more...

Not really, there are many factors at play here. For myself for example, the CoL in London would be very similar to Cape Town. Your assertion is truer for low earners, and becomes increasingly false for high earners.

For the numbers in the article, I do agree - however, they’re pretty much all completely wrong.

 

[randomcat]

Not a good source until you’ve got colleagues to rate yourself against and salary data to weigh up how fair your pay is. Blind and Levels tell you what other people are getting, but often this requires degrees from well regarded universities and such.

For your first job, probably the best sources are job ads and working friends.

Lol, I didn't take the offerzen survey because I know it will taint the data.

Again, there is such a variance in the ads. For now we'll just have to take Mr Prior's word and move on

 

[The Voice]

To be fair, I've seen a number of job posts on this forum looking for software and network engineers, with years of experience and certs coming out their ears, for R20k/month.

 

[Hamster]

To be fair, I've seen a number of job posts on this forum looking for software and network engineers, with years of experience and certs coming out their ears, for R20k/month.

ChantallMichelle posts don't count.

 

[zippy]

Those UK salaries are understated, even accounting for "averaging". Outside of London, they would be on the bottom end of the scale.

 

[zippy]

MyBroadband seems to publish such articles every once in a while. I do think these articles are misleading; a higher pay cheque in another nation doesn't mean you are actually earning more coin. For the next fake news immigration article, it would be nice if MyBB writers went a little deeper - tell people what the average rental prices are, how much groceries are, fuel, transportation.

From the few websites I have seen, it looks like salaries are higher abroad, but, these are accompanied with a much higher cost of living (higher rent, higher groceries, higher transportation costs, etc.)

Its not as high as you think. Mortgages are cheaper and that accounts for a big part of peoples outgoing. Not everything is more expensive. Some expenses are not required. Such as security. Then also consider what you are getting for your money. Lets take electricity. It might be more expensive(I pay £82 per month for 1 person, 2 bed flat. I have lots of gadgets on). But its reliable. I think I had 1 power drop for about 10mins in the last 2 years.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

MyBroadband seems to publish such articles every once in a while. I do think these articles are misleading; a higher pay cheque in another nation doesn't mean you are actually earning more coin. For the next fake news immigration article, it would be nice if MyBB writers went a little deeper - tell people what the average rental prices are, how much groceries are, fuel, transportation.

From the few websites I have seen, it looks like salaries are higher abroad, but, these are accompanied with a much higher cost of living (higher rent, higher groceries, higher transportation costs, etc.)

Dependent on where you are. Most people equate UK with London ...... I'm in Yorkshire and could cover the whole house with 3/4 of my salary alone (3 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs) if I had to. Eat well for cheap, electricity and broadband and all that jazz and still have money over to save and invest. I do agree that the articles should be more in depth though, if only to let people see what it's like outside of London and how far your money goes.

 

[cda]

Its not as high as you think. Mortgages are cheaper and that accounts for a big part of peoples outgoing. Not everything is more expensive. Some expenses are not required. Such as security. Then also consider what you are getting for your money. Lets take electricity. It might be more expensive(I pay £82 per month for 1 person, 2 bed flat. I have lots of gadgets on). But its reliable. I think I had 1 power drop for about 10mins in the last 2 years.

Sounds like you should switch energy providers. Paying £62/m here for a 3 bedroom house in Berkshire

 

[cda]

Dependent on where you are. Most people equate UK with London ...... I'm in Yorkshire and could cover the whole house with 3/4 of my salary alone (3 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs) if I had to. Eat well for cheap, electricity and broadband and all that jazz and still have money over to save and invest. I do agree that the articles should be more in depth though, if only to let people see what it's like outside of London and how far your money goes.

Yeah London sucks, plenty of high speed rail from much nicer places to live. I so love not having to drive to work, just kick back with the ipad on the train and enjoy some TV

 

[The Voice]

Sounds like you should switch energy providers. Paying £62/m here for a 3 bedroom house in Berkshire

Paying £39 for electricity and gas for a 1 bedroom with E.On.

 

[cda]

Barring the meaningless of using averages, it is pointless to make anything of UK salaries being 2x to 3x more in Rand terms since the cost of living is also 2x to 3x more...

Yeah but it also means your savings are 3X more.

 

[cda]

Paying £39 for electricity and gas for a 1 bedroom with E.On.

Sounds like I also need to switch providers again

 

[zippy]

Sounds like you should switch energy providers. Paying £62/m here for a 3 bedroom house in Berkshire

I probably should. Get paid too much to bother

 

[zippy]

Yeah London sucks, plenty of high speed rail from much nicer places to live. I so love not having to drive to work, just kick back with the ipad on the train and enjoy some TV

I live on the coast in the South East. Office is also in a coastal town. I actually like the drive in to work. Traffic is minimal.

 

[cguy]

Only rent is. Eating out is also more expensive, but not 2-3x more expensive.

You actually pay less tax in the UK, and you don't get double taxed. For instance, I don't pay taxes that fund the police and then also pay for private security. I just pay my taxes, and those taxes are lower than what you would pay in SA.

I have much more disposable income here.

Agreed. Most of those types of comments implicitly assume that people are going to be paying off rent and/or housing as a majority of their income for the rest of their lives.

It’s certainly not a completely invalid concern, but most people will be done in 10-15 years unless they continuously scale up (and even then, the “booby prize” is likely that you’re stuck owning a property worth several tens of millions of Rands).

 

[Ancalagon]

Agreed. Most of those types of comments implicitly assume that people are going to be paying off rent and/or housing as a majority of their income for the rest of their lives.

It’s certainly not a completely invalid concern, but most people will be done in 10-15 years unless they continuously scale up (and even then, the “booby prize” is likely that you’re stuck owning a property worth several tens of millions of Rands).

I will say that, for a lot of people, renting for their entire lives is becoming the norm in the UK. Especially in London, where prices are crazy.

If you're living in London, you have to be earning a good salary to afford to buy. When even the cheapest properties seldom go for less than £500k, it is difficult to get onto the property market.

You have to have a relatively decent professional job to be able to consider it. Possibly even in a household with two such salaries.

Here is an example. I went on a date with a teacher, who lives outside of London, and she told me that she "dreamed" of making more than £50k. I kept very quiet. Jeremy Corbyn himself said something like people who earn more than £80k should be taxed heavily.

 

[gregmcc]

Nice to see so many fellow MyBB's in the UK. (I live North West, near Manchester)

I wouldn't want to work in London for any amount on money. Much prefer living outside of London where everything is cheaper.

Most of those salaries look to be on the low side.