Big salaries, bigger debt: Where some earners spend 85c of every R1 they take home
People earning more than R35,000 a month spend 85c on servicing debt out of every R1 they earn.
Image: Freepik
High-income earners in South Africa are allocating a disproportionate share of their net income to debt repayment, with some using up to 85% of their take-home pay to service debt, according to DebtBusters’ Debt Index for the fourth quarter of 2025.
The index, released ahead of National Debt Awareness Month, shows that consumers earning around R35,000 or more per month are facing unprecedented levels of debt stress in the decade-long data tracked, says Benay Sager, executive head of DebtBusters.
This group’s debt-to-income ratio has risen to 210%, the highest seen since monitoring began in 2016. “We haven't seen those kinds of numbers before,” said Sager during a presentation of the index.
Sager noted this trend is concerning because it reflects not only the pressure on individual borrowers but also the broader role high earners play in the economy, often supporting family and business activities.
The trend data indicates that, compared with earlier cohorts, high-income individuals now carry substantially more unsecured debt and personal loans, which contribute heavily to their overall repayment burden.
Almost all applicants to DebtBusters for debt review reported having personal loans, and a majority held one-month or payday loans.
By contrast, middle-income earners showed somewhat lower pressure, and lower-income groups continued to struggle with shorter-term, higher-interest obligations.
“The lowest earners are under quite a bit of pressure, in the sense that they have to allocate a higher portion of their take home pay compared to all other bands, because generally, the nature of the debt that they would have is shorter term, higher interest rate, and it's more acute. On the other end, the middle-income earners… seem to be doing a bit better than a few years ago…,” said Sager.
Other findings show that consumers who applied for debt counselling in the last quarter of 2025 needed, on average, 71% of their take-home pay to service their debt – the highest level since 2017.
This, Sager says, is because of electricity tariffs having increased by 165%, petrol by 74%, and the compound effect of inflation is 49% over the past decade. By contrast, income growth has lagged considerably, he noted.
The index also found shifts in borrowing behaviour, with a rise in multi-credit relationships and vehicle loans stretching over longer terms, which influence how much income is committed to repayments.
As an example, Sager cited car loans of as long as eight to 10 years.
The release of the Q4 2025 Debt Index coincides with National Debt Awareness Month 2026. This year’s theme, ‘Know your debt’, focuses on empowering South Africans to take control of their financial health by understanding their debt and credit standing.
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