South Africa’s BCEA earnings threshold increased to R269,600.90 per annum — approximately R22,466.74 per month — with effect from 1 May 2026. This 3% adjustment, published in Government Notice No. 7384 on 17 April 2026, directly determines which employees in your business are entitled to overtime pay, regulated working hours, meal intervals, and Sunday and public holiday premiums.
The threshold is reviewed annually by the Minister of Employment and Labour and aligned to CPI inflation. The previous threshold — R261,748.45 per annum — had been in effect since 1 April 2025. The next review is expected in the first quarter of 2027, with any revised threshold taking effect from 1 May 2027.
If you have not reviewed your payroll against the new figure since 1 May 2026, there may be employees in your business whose entitlements have changed — in either direction.
What the earnings threshold actually does
The earnings threshold is a line in your payroll above which certain automatic BCEA protections no longer apply. Employees earning above the threshold are excluded from the BCEA provisions that regulate working time and premium payments. Employees earning below it are entitled to those protections as a matter of law — regardless of what their employment contract says.
The threshold affects three pieces of legislation simultaneously:
Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA)— working time, overtime, meal intervals, rest periods, Sunday pay, night work allowances, and public holiday pay.
Labour Relations Act (LRA)— provisions relating to fixed-term and labour broker employees, and certain dispute resolution processes.
Employment Equity Act (EEA)— certain provisions relating to designated employee protections.
The most immediate practical impact for most employers is the BCEA working time provisions.
Which BCEA protections the threshold switches off
Employees earning above R269,600.90 per annum are excluded from the following BCEA sections:
Section 9 — Ordinary hours of work. The 45-hour ordinary working week limit does not automatically apply. Above-threshold employees can be contracted to work more.
Section 10 — Overtime.The entitlement to overtime pay at 1.5 times the normal rate does not automatically apply. Above-threshold employees can be required to work longer hours without overtime premium — subject to what their employment contract says.
Section 11 — Compressed working week. The compressed working week provisions do not automatically apply.
Section 12 — Averaging of hours. Averaging arrangements can be implemented without the constraints that apply to below-threshold employees.
Section 14 — Meal intervals. The right to a one-hour unpaid meal interval after five continuous hours of work does not automatically apply.
Section 15 — Daily and weekly rest periods. The 12-hour daily rest period and 36-hour weekly rest period do not automatically apply.
Section 16 — Pay for work on Sundays. The 1.5 times premium for Sunday work does not automatically apply.
Section 17(2) — Night work. The transport and night shift allowance provisions do not automatically apply.
Section 18(3) — Public holidays. The additional payment for work on a public holiday that falls on a day the employee would not ordinarily work does not automatically apply.
What this does not mean:Above-threshold employees retain all other BCEA protections — annual leave, sick leave, family responsibility leave, maternity leave, notice periods, and severance pay are not affected by the threshold. These apply to all employees regardless of earnings.
Employment contracts matter.An employer can provide more favourable terms to above-threshold employees in their employment contracts or through collective agreements. The exclusion is from the automatic statutory protection — it is not a prohibition on providing equivalent or better conditions contractually.
Who is affected by the May 2026 adjustment
The practical impact of a threshold increase falls into two groups.
Employees who moved from below to above the new threshold:If an employee’s annual earnings increased between April 2025 and May 2026 and now exceed R269,600.90, they have moved above the threshold. They lose the automatic BCEA protections listed above from 1 May 2026 onwards. Their employment contracts should be reviewed to confirm whether the contractual terms adequately cover their working time arrangements now that the statutory floor no longer applies.
Employees who were previously above the old threshold but now fall below the new one:This is the more counterintuitive direction. If an employee earned between R261,748.45 and R269,600.90 per annum, they were above the old threshold and below the new one. From 1 May 2026, they are now below the threshold — meaning the BCEA working time protections now apply to them automatically. If this employee has been rostered, paid overtime, or managed as though they were above the threshold, their arrangements need to be adjusted.
The practical payroll action: run a filter on all employee annualised earnings. Flag everyone falling between R261,748.45 and R269,600.90. Those employees’ threshold status has changed and their BCEA entitlements need to be reviewed and updated accordingly.
What earnings count toward the threshold
For the purpose of the threshold calculation, “earnings” means an employee’s regular annual remuneration before deductions — tax, pension, and benefit fund contributions are deducted from the gross, but the threshold comparison is against the gross figure.
What is excluded from the earnings calculation: employer contributions to benefit funds, discretionary bonuses not forming part of regular remuneration, and allowances paid to enable the employee to work (tools, transport, equipment).
What is included: base salary, regular performance bonuses forming part of the remuneration package, guaranteed allowances, and shift premiums that form part of the regular pay structure.
An employee on R20,000 per month base salary plus a R3,000 guaranteed monthly allowance has annualised earnings of R276,000 — above the threshold. An employee on R20,000 per month base with no regular allowances has annualised earnings of R240,000 — below the threshold. The distinction matters.
The LRA and EEA implications
The threshold also affects how fixed-term and labour broker employees are treated under the LRA.
Fixed-term employees below the thresholdare entitled to specific LRA protections around the justification and renewal of fixed-term contracts. Employers cannot simply roll fixed-term contracts indefinitely for below-threshold employees without the LRA’s scrutiny of the arrangement applying.
Labour broker employees below the threshold who work for a client for more than three months are deemed to be employees of the client for the purposes of certain LRA protections. Above-threshold labour broker employees are not subject to the same deemed employment provisions.
These LRA implications are particularly relevant for employers who use significant numbers of fixed-term or labour broker employees in roles that fall around the threshold level. The adjustment may have reclassified some of those employees’ status under the LRA.
The compliance action
The adjustment took effect on 1 May 2026. If you have not already acted, the immediate steps are:
Run a payroll filter comparing each employee’s annualised earnings against R269,600.90. Identify all employees whose earnings fall between the old threshold (R261,748.45) and the new one (R269,600.90) — these employees have moved below the threshold and now have automatic BCEA protections they did not have before. Update their HRIS classification and ensure their rostering, overtime, and working time arrangements comply with the BCEA provisions that now apply to them.
For employees who have moved above the threshold, review their employment contracts to confirm that their working time and overtime arrangements are adequately covered contractually, given that the automatic BCEA protections no longer apply.
Labour inspectors who conduct BCEA compliance checks — which in 2026 have been running alongside OHS inspections in the Department’s “Taking Services to the People” campaign — verify working hours and overtime compliance. An employer whose payroll has not been adjusted to reflect the new threshold is operating with incorrect BCEA entitlement classifications, which will show up as a contravention in an inspection.
Run your compliance baseline check
ClearComply’s compliance calendar tracks your BCEA and SARS deadlines alongside CIPC, COIDA, and UIF obligations. The free compliance check at clearcomply.co.za/check confirms your foundational compliance status.
For the National Minimum Wage rates also effective from March 2026, see our National Minimum Wage guide. For what a BCEA inspection looks like in practice, see our labour inspection guide.
Sources: Government Notice No. 7384, 17 April 2026 — BCEA earnings threshold increase to R269,600.90 per annum, effective 1 May 2026. Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Employment Law Alert, 20 April 2026. Bowmans Law, April 2026. DLA Piper Africa, April 2026. Werksmans Attorneys, April 2026. Labourwise.co.za, April 2026. All threshold figures and BCEA section references verified against official government notice.