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Capitec paid its CEO the highest salary, while Standard Bank leads in average employee pay.
The highest-paid CEO in banking, Capitec's outgoing CEO Gerrie Fourie. Picture: Capitec website
The pay gap between executives and ordinary staff members at companies is mind-blowing, as the remuneration for one executive often exceeds the combined salaries of ten staff members.
However, given the differences in qualifications, experience, and responsibilities between executives and other staff members, the difference is surely justifiable. But to what degree?
According to data obtained by The Citizen from South Africa’s top five banks, Capitec paid its CEO the highest annual salary, while Standard Bank offered the highest average pay to its employees.
The lowest-earning CEO in the top five banks is from Absa, with more than R6 million per annum, while the lowest-earning employee is from FNB/FirstRand.
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The salaries of a CEO and a staff member are set in different ways.
A CEO’s salary is typically set by the board of directors, which oversees the company’s strategic direction and governance.
The board assess the CEO’s performance and sets remuneration in alignment with company goals and values, often consulting with external experts and benchmarking against similar companies.
The board also considers factors such as the CEO’s experience, the company’s size and growth, and key performance metrics. The remuneration usually includes a fixed yearly salary, benefits, performance-based bonuses, and shares.
Ordinary staff members’ salaries are typically set according to their job position, qualifications, experience, market benchmarking, and the company’s size. Staff members’ remuneration does not usually include significant benefits, bonuses, or shares.
Francois Viviers, Group Executive of Marketing and Communications at Capitec told The Citizen 62% of their employees earn between R250 000 and R500 000 annually.
The bank did not specify which job positions are included in the 62% and which are not. But Viviers said this is an increase of 18% from 2021, where 9% of their employees were earning below R180 000 annually.
According to the bank’s financial results for the year ending 28 February 2025, its outgoing CEO Gerrie Fourie’s annual salary and provident fund is over R18 million, with benefits worth R118 000. When including short and long-term incentives, his total cost to company for the year was over R104 million.
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Donald Khumalo, chief people officer at FNB told The Citizen from 1 August 2024, its parent company, FirstRand increased the minimum wage for banking roles to R215 000 per annum, and R185 000 per annum for non-banking roles.
He added that the bank is set to announce salary increases on 11 September 2025 in line with their annual reporting cycle. FirstRand Group has a complement of 39 496 in South Africa.
According to the latest available remuneration report, which covered the year ended 30 June 2024, FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi, who took office on 1 April 2024, received a total guaranteed remuneration of R9.4 million.
This included a cash package of R8.9 million, retirement contributions of R187 000, and other allowances of R242 000.
Meanwhile, FNB’s CEO, Harry Kellan, received guaranteed remuneration of R9.4 million. This included a cash package of R9 million, retirement contributions of R74 000, and other allowances of R266 000.
An Absa spokesperson told The Citizen the lowest cost of company for their ordinary staff member was increased to R250 000 in April 2025. Absa said a person who would get this amount is someone in an entry-level, junior teller, junior customer services officer, junior sales consultant.
Absa’s staff salaries for 2024 were R26 billion, with bonuses amounting to R3 billion, and training costs of R524 million. As of 31 December 2024, the bank had 36 779 employees, 26 542 of whom are employed in South Africa, 10 037 by Absa Regional Operations (ARO), and the rest internationally.
Its outgoing CEO, Charles Russon received total remuneration of R35 472 245 in 2024.
From that amount, more than R6 million was for his salary, R245 940 went to medical aid, retirement benefits cost R196 856, and other employee benefits for R72 606.
The rest of the remuneration includes a cash award of R7 250 000 and a deferred share award of R6 250 000. He received R13 500 000 for total short-term incentives, while the face value of the long-term incentive award (on-target award) was R15 000 000.
ALSO READ: Absa and Standard Bank raised their minimum salaries for 2025 – here’s the new pay
Standard Bank’s remuneration report revealed that its lowest employee will earn R258 390 per annum, which is an increase from R244 920. It did not specify which role this would be.
The bank spent R27 billion on staff salaries and wages, and R1.5 billion on pension and other post-employment benefits in 2024.
CEO Sim Tshabalala walked away with more than R89 million in remuneration.
Out of the R89 million, his annual salary cost the bank more than R10 million.
The remaining amount was shared between employer retirement contributions, benefits and allowances, cash incentives, deferred incentives, the Performance Reward Plan (PRP) and the Nominal dividend on PRP award vesting.
Nedbank said its lowest-paid full-time permanent employees earned R225 000 a year (R18 750 a month) in 2024, but the bank said this would increase to R240 000 (R20 000 a month) in 2025. It spent more than R22 billion in 2024 on staff salaries.
Jason Quinn, the CEO of Nedbank, received a total awarded remuneration of R106 million, with a guaranteed salary of R6 million.
The guaranteed remuneration includes the cash portion of the package, other benefits, and a defined-contribution retirement fund. The remaining funds are divided between two cash performance incentives: one paid in cash and the other in shares.
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