What should a South African
au pair actually be earning?

Your hourly rate is your monthly pay divided by the hours you actually work in a month. We use 4.33 weeks a month, which is the 52-weeks-over-12-months figure payroll uses.

Overtime is paid at 1.5× your ordinary rate under section 10 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. The BCEA also caps ordinary hours at 45 a week and overtime at 10 a week.

The National Minimum Wage is R30.23 an hour from 1 March 2026, and it covers domestic work. It is reviewed roughly every March, so check it is still current before you rely on it in a conversation about your pay.

Kilometres are simply your distance × your agreed rate. There is no legally fixed rate for reimbursing an employee's own car in this situation — R4.95 is a common starting point, but the number that matters is the one in your agreement.

Overtime agreements lapse. Under BCEA section 10(5), an agreement to work overtime signed when you started, or in your first three months, expires after one year. After that you may lawfully decline overtime until it is renewed in writing.

UIF is compulsory for domestic work: 1% from you and 1% from your employer, on earnings up to R17 712 a month, so at most R177.12 each. It comes off the gross figure above.

Income tax is not worked out here. The threshold for under-65s is R99 000 a year — about R8 250 a month — and above it your employer is generally expected to register with SARS and deduct PAYE. Kilometre money is a reimbursement rather than income and is treated differently again. If you are near that line, ask SARS or a tax practitioner; this page will not tell you what you owe.

Not covered: Sunday work (double, or 1.5× if you ordinarily work Sundays), public holidays, and the night-work allowance for hours between 18:00 and 06:00. Each has its own rule in the BCEA, and each would make your real figure higher than the one above — so treat this as a floor, not a ceiling.

The research behind this page The rules that decide your pay as a South African au pair Every figure above with its section of the Act — the R30.23 minimum, overtime at 1.5×, Sunday and public-holiday rates, the earnings threshold that switches them off, UIF and the tax line. Including the one almost nobody knows: an overtime agreement signed in your first three months expires after a year. Read the full breakdown

This is a guide to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, not legal or tax advice, and it covers South Africa only. Au pair work is generally understood to fall under the BCEA, but your own arrangement may differ — confirm anything important with the Department of Employment and Labour or a labour consultant. Nothing you type here leaves your device or is stored.