To earn what the CEO of Woolworths earns in a single day, the lowest-paid worker in the company has to work for 1,308 days, or three-and-a-half years.

This is the highest pay gap of nine JSE-listed wholesale and retail companies analysed by Just Share, a non-profit shareholder activism organisation. Their research shows that CEOs in the sector earn on average 597 times more than their lowest-paid employees. It takes about 630 days for the average worker to earn what a CEO makes in a day.

The wholesale and retail sector is South Africa’s second-largest employer after government. More than 346,000 people are employed by the nine companies in the survey, which have a total reported revenue of R721.4-billion.

Woolworths and Shoprite are the only two companies to make their minimum wage public. For the other companies, the salaries of the lowest-paid workers were based on 2023 or 2024’s minimum wage.

Note: CEO remuneration includes incentives and other benefits.