Plain-English guides to paying and managing staff in South Africa — leave, overtime, UIF, PAYE, payslips and the BCEA rules behind them.
What must be in writing from day one, why a handshake is already a contract, and the clauses households get wrong.
The most widely believed wrong thing in South African employment: that you can dock their pay for breakages if they agree. You cannot.
Where ordinary hours stop and overtime starts, the breaks nobody records, and why your hourly rate is probably calculated wrong.
Most CCMA losses are not about whether the reason was good. They are about process. Notice, severance, final pay and the paperwork they need.
Deducting tax that is not owed is as much a problem as not deducting tax that is. Where the line actually sits for a small employer.
They do not work it, they work a day they normally works, or they work a day they normally does not. Three situations, three answers, worked out in rands.
Every employee is entitled to at least 21 consecutive days of paid annual leave per cycle — 15 working days for a five-day week. Here is how it accrues, when it must be granted, and what happens on termination.
Notice is one week under six months, two weeks up to a year, and four weeks after that — for both the employer and the employee. Here is the full rule and why notice is not a shortcut around unfair-dismissal law.
UIF is 1% off the employee plus 1% from the employer, capped at the earnings ceiling. Here is exactly how much to deduct, how to register and what to file each month.
From 1 March 2026 the national minimum wage is R30.23 an hour, and it now covers domestic and farm workers at the same rate. Here is what it means per week and month, and the penalties for paying less.
The BCEA gives an employee paid sick leave equal to the days they work in six weeks, over each three-year cycle — 30 days for a five-day week. Here is the full rule, including the first six months.
The overtime rate is 1.5x normal pay, Sundays and public holidays are 2x, and there is a weekly cap on overtime — 10 hours for employees generally, 15 for a domestic worker. Here is how each one works, with a worked example.
When you hire someone you become an employer in the eyes of the law. Here is exactly what to register for — UIF, PAYE with SARS and the Compensation Fund — and how household employers do it.
The law lists exactly what a payslip must show, from the rate of pay to every deduction. Here is the full checklist, which rules apply to you, and why giving one protects you as much as the worker.