South African tech salaries vs top emigration countries

Emigrants working in 10 popular tech jobs in Australia and the UK are earning far more than their compatriots who remain in South Africa, an analysis by MyBroadband shows.

Professionals in the field of tech are among the most in-demand of any jobseekers — locally and abroad.

MyBroadband compared local annual salaries for ten tech roles on salary comparison sites Indeed and Payscale in Australia and the UK, the two top destinations for South African emigrants.

There were an estimated 217,000 South African expats in the UK in 2021 and about 215,000 in Australia by 2023.

On average, we found that annual tech salaries in the UK were around double the going rate in South Africa — R976,421 versus R491,093.

Australia offered the best salaries overall, with an average of nearly R1.24 million across the ten positions.

It is important to emphasise that salaries should not be compared in isolation. One should also consider that basic living costs in the three countries vary greatly.

South Africa tends to have far lower property and food prices than Australia and the UK.

Cars are cheaper in the UK. In Australia, cars are priced similarly to those in South Africa. However, fuel is much more expensive in the UK and more affordable in Australia than in South Africa.

While you could use an indicator like the Big Mac Index for a rough idea of buying power in each country, it is best to calculate three complete budgets for each country.

This lets you weigh whether there are good financial grounds for taking up one of the tech jobs overseas.

The higher living costs could also be justified given the lower levels of crime and better-functioning government services — including public transport and medical care — in the UK and Australia.

Therefore, it would be best to conduct thorough research that goes beyond the financial benefits before making a move abroad.

The table below compares the annual salaries of 10 common tech jobs in South Africa, the UK, and Australia.

Job	South Africa	UK	Australia
Technical Support Specialist	R239,711	R635,477	R794,391
Web Developer	R197,843	R646,271	R804,691
Database Administrator	R333,168	R836,468	R955,519
Systems Administrator	R276,283	R670,932	R952,084
Information Security Analyst	R479,426	R717,785	R1,164,139
Software Engineer	R413,131	R934,603	R1,120,088
DevOps Architect	R1,028,214	R1,627,399	R1,946,067
Data Engineer	R493,721	R1,058,519	R1,370,223
IT Manager	R479,041	R974,2230	R1,462,846
Senior Solutions Architect	R970,396	R1,662,516	R1,798,152
Average	R491,093	R976,421	R1,236,820

Aside from living costs, another major factor to consider is the income tax you will pay on your salary in each country.

Australia and the UK’s income tax regimes differ significantly from South Africa’s.

For the average R491,093 salary across the ten jobs above, a South African taxpayer would pay R114,745 in tax, working out to 23.37% of their gross income.

The UK resident earning the average £41,888 (R976,421) salary in that country would pay 20% in income tax.

It was interesting to note that the same R491,093 (£21,068) salary as the South African worker would also be subject to a 20% tax rate in the UK — as this tax bracket is very wide.

Someone earning the average Australian salary of AU$103,154 (R1.24 million) would pay about AU$21,734 in income tax, working out to 21% of their salary.

In general, it would appear that the income taxes in the UK and Australia leave workers with more take-home pay than in South Africa, although this should be analysed on a case-by-case basis for accuracy.

Below we have summarised the different income tax brackets of South Africa, the UK, and Australia.

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South African tax brackets

Taxable income	Tax on that income
R1 to R237 100	18% of taxable income
R237,101 to R370,500	R42,678 + 26% of taxable income above R237,100
R370,501 to R512,800	R77,362 + 31% of taxable income above R370,500
R512,801 to R673,000	R121,475 + 36% of taxable income above R512,800
R673,001 to R857,900	R179,147 + 39% of taxable income above R673,000
R857,901 to R1,817,000	R251,258 + 41% of taxable income above R857,900

UK tax brackets

Taxable income	Tax on that income
Up to £12,570	0%
£12,571 to £50,270	20%
£50,271 to £125,140	40%
Over £125,140	45%

Australian tax brackets

Taxable income	Tax on that income
AU$0 to AU$18,200	Nil
AU$18,201 to AU$45,000	16 cents for each AU$1 over AU$18,200
AU$45,001 to AU$135,000	AU$4,288 plus 30 cents for each AU$1 over AU$45,000
AU$135,001 to AU$190,000	AU$31,288 plus 37 cents for each AU$1 over AU$135,000
AU$190,001 and over	AU$51,638 plus 45 cents for each AU$1 over AU$190,000