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NURSING SALARIES EXPOSED
💸What South African Nurses REALLY Earn in 2025
If you’ve ever opened your payslip and whispered, “For this stress?” — you are definitely not alone.
At nurselife.co.za we love nursing, we love our patients… but we also believe in real talk about money.
This breakdown gives you a clear, simple picture of what different nursing categories actually earn in South Africa in 2025.
Important:
All amounts below are gross (before tax) and based on recent 2024–2025 government vacancy circulars and salary data. Salaries can vary by province, years of experience, grade/notch, overtime, rural allowances and employer.
- Big picture: What does the “average” Registered Nurse earn?
Looking across public and private sectors, most Registered Nurses in South Africa fall roughly in this range:
• Around R22 000–R24 000 per month before overtime and allowances.
Some nurses earn less (early career, smaller facilities), and some earn more (specialised skills, senior grades, private sector and agency work). But this is a realistic “middle-of-the-road” range for many RNs right now.
- Public sector nursing salaries by category
These figures are based on the current government nursing salary scales and typical provincial adverts. Rounded for easier reading.
2.1 Nursing Assistant / Auxiliary (ENA / NA)
For Nursing Assistants / Auxiliaries (Grade 1–3), typical annual packages look like:
• Grade 1: ±R174 000 per year → about R14 500/month
• Grade 2: ±R203 000 per year → about R16 900/month
• Grade 3: ±R239 000 per year → about R20 000/month
Reality check:
ENAs doing full bedside care in the public sector are usually sitting around R15 000–R20 000 per month, before benefits and overtime.
2.2 Staff Nurse / Enrolled Nurse (SN / EN)
For Staff / Enrolled Nurses (Grade 1–3), current scales are typically:
• Grade 1: ±R209 000–R221 000 per year → about R17 400–R18 400/month
• Grade 2: ±R249 000–R262 000 per year → about R20 700–R21 900/month
• Grade 3: ±R291 000–R307 000 per year → about R24 200–R25 500/month
Some provinces advertise higher upper ranges (up to about R362 000 per year) for very experienced Grade 3 staff nurses. That can push the monthly salary into the high 20s to around R30 000.
2.3 Professional Nurse (General)
For a Professional Nurse (General) Grade 1–3, typical packages look like this:
• Grade 1: ±R307 000–R362 000 per year → about R25 600–R30 200/month
• Grade 2: ±R375 000–R442 000 per year → about R31 300–R36 900/month
• Grade 3: ±R452 000–R579 000 per year → about R37 600–R48 200/month
These numbers line up well with the overall RN averages once you factor in that many nurses are still at Grade 1 or mid-range notches.
2.4 Specialist & ICU Registered Nurses
Once you specialise (ICU, theatre, emergency, oncology, PHC nurse practitioner and similar), both the basic salary and the demand for your skills increase.
Specialist and ICU RNs in South Africa commonly earn:
• Around R29 000–R32 000 per month as a typical base range
• More with:
– Years of experience
– Night duty and standby
– Scarce-skills or rural allowances
– Agency and locum shifts
2.5 Operational Manager & Assistant Manager Nursing
This is where nursing salaries start to look more like management packages.
Typical figures for public sector management posts:
• Operational Manager Nursing (unit managers):
often around R693 000–R790 000 per year → about R58 000–R66 000/month
• Assistant Manager Nursing / Area Manager:
often around R693 000–R814 000 per year → about R58 000–R68 000/month
These roles come with high responsibility, leadership demands and serious stress, but the jump from bedside RN pay is very real.
- Quick cheat sheet (screenshot this 📸)
All figures below are gross monthly estimates, rounded for readability:
• Nursing Assistant / ENA: ±R14 500–R20 000+ per month
• Staff / Enrolled Nurse (EN): ±R17 000–R24 000+ per month (up to around R30 000 in higher grades)
• Professional Nurse (general): ±R25 000–R30 000+ per month, up to around R48 000 in top grades
• Specialist / ICU RN: typically ±R29 000–R32 000+ per month
• Operational / Assistant Manager Nursing: often ±R50 000–R60 000+, sometimes up to R65 000–R68 000 per month
Remember:
Overtime, rural allowances, scarce-skills allowances, agency work and benefits can change the final number a lot.
- Where nurselife.co.za fits in
We can’t rewrite the salary scales (yet 😉), but we can make your shifts a little more bearable.
At nurselife.co.za you can:
• Look good while you hustle: shop cute nurse bags, pouches, badge reels, digital watches, pens, mugs and more.
• Stay informed: read more nursing career and money blogs designed specifically for South African nurses.
• Save your sanity: organise your stationery and tools so at least your pens, scissors and pulse ox aren’t “disappearing” every shift.
If you’re doing one of the hardest jobs in South Africa, you deserve more than a mystery payslip and ugly pens that keep going missing.
nurselife.co.za is here to keep it real, help you feel seen, and add a little sparkle to your scrubs. ✨
