Payslip Requirements in South Africa: what section 33 asks for, and the four returns built from the same data

South African payslip requirements come from section 33 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. On each day an employee is paid, the employer must give written information: employer name and address, employee name and occupation, the pay period, remuneration in money, every deduction and its purpose, and the actual amount paid. Four further items apply where relevant.

Most pages that answer this question stop at that list. The list is the easy part. The part that costs an owner real hours is that the payslip is not a standalone document: it is one view of employee data that four separate returns also draw on, every month and every year, at four different deadlines set by three different authorities. This post gives the statutory list with the subsection behind each line, then shows what else is built from the same fields.

What must a payslip contain in South Africa?

Section 33(1) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 requires an employer to give an employee the following information in writing on each day the employee is paid.

Subsection	What it requires
33(1)(a)	The employer's name and address
33(1)(b)	The employee's name and occupation
33(1)(c)	The period for which the payment is made
33(1)(d)	The employee's remuneration in money
33(1)(e)	The amount and purpose of any deduction made from the remuneration
33(1)(f)	The actual amount paid to the employee

Subsection 33(1)(g) adds four more, but only where they are relevant to the calculation of that employee's remuneration: the rate of remuneration and overtime rate; the number of ordinary and overtime hours worked in the pay period; the number of hours worked on a Sunday or public holiday in that period; and, if a working time averaging agreement under section 12 is in place, the total ordinary and overtime hours across the averaging period.

That conditional wording is where most template payslips go wrong, in both directions. A monthly salaried employee on a fixed package does not need an hours line for the payslip to be compliant. An employee who works overtime does, and a payslip that shows a single net figure with no rate and no hours is not compliant no matter how neat it looks.

When and where must the payslip be given?

Section 33(2) is specific, and it is the subsection almost nobody quotes. The written information must be given to each employee at the workplace or at a place agreed to by the employee, and during the employee's ordinary working hours or within 15 minutes of the start or the end of those hours.

Two practical consequences follow. First, delivery is part of the obligation, not an afterthought: a payslip that exists in a folder the employee cannot reach has not been given. Second, the section says "at a place agreed to by the employee", which is what makes an emailed or portal delivered payslip workable, provided the employee has agreed to that place and can actually open it.

Section 32(3) sits alongside it and is often confused with the payslip deadline. It requires remuneration to be paid not later than seven days after the completion of the period for which it is payable, or after termination. Payment timing and payslip timing are separate duties.

How long must payroll records be kept?

Section 31(1) requires every employer to keep a record containing at least the employee's name and occupation, the time worked by each employee, the remuneration paid to each employee, the date of birth of any employee under 18, and any other prescribed information. Section 31(2) sets the retention period: three years from the date of the last entry in the record.

Section 31(4) is the quiet reward for doing this properly. An employer who keeps a record in terms of section 31 is not required to keep any other record of time worked and remuneration paid as required by any other employment law. One correct record satisfies the lot.

What else is built from the same payroll data?

The payslip is the copy the employee sees. The same underlying fields feed four returns that go to other people, on other deadlines.

1. The EMP201, monthly, to SARS

SARS states that employers must "submit your EMP201 and the payment, if applicable, within 7 days after the end of each month, e.g. by the 7th of each month", and that where the 7th falls on a weekend or public holiday, submission and payment are due by the last business day before it. The EMP201 covers Pay As You Earn, the Skills Development Levy, the Unemployment Insurance Fund contribution and the Employment Tax Incentive. Every one of those is derived from the same remuneration and deduction figures that printed on the payslip.

2. The UI-19, monthly, to the UI Commissioner

The UI-19 employer declaration reports each employee's remuneration, their employment status, and any reason for non contribution. It is a monthly declaration to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and it is a separate submission from the UIF money that rides along on the EMP201. Paying the contribution does not declare the employee. See our guide to UIF registration for employers for which registration goes where.

3. The EMP501 and the IRP5, twice a year, to SARS

SARS runs two reconciliation windows: an interim period covering "the six month period 1 March to 31 August" and an annual period covering "the full year 1 March to 28/29 February". In each, the employer submits an EMP501 reconciliation together with IRP5 and IT3(a) employee tax certificates. SARS notes on its reconciliations page that final submission periods are "subject to business requirements / readiness and calendar working day dates" and are confirmed at the time, so check the dates SARS publishes for the current season rather than assuming last year's. The interim period covers the six months that closed on 31 August, which is the period that has just ended as this publishes.

The reconciliation is the moment every monthly shortcut surfaces. It compares what was declared on six or twelve EMP201s against what the certificates say per employee. A field that was retyped differently in March than in July does not fail in March. It fails here.

4. The employment equity report, annually, to the Department of Employment and Labour

Designated employers report annually on workforce profile and remuneration, and that reporting season is open now. We cover who must submit and what the forms ask in employment equity reporting in South Africa.

The employee admin that should never be typed twice

Count the fields. Employee name, occupation, identity number, date of birth, start date, bank details, tax number, rate of pay, hours, deductions. Every one of those appears in the employment contract required by section 29, on every payslip required by section 33, in the section 31 record, in the EMP201 calculation, on the UI-19, on the IRP5 and in the equity report. That is one set of facts and seven destinations.

Typed once per destination, at several destinations, most of them monthly, a small employer re-keys the same handful of facts over and over across a year. The cost is not mainly the typing. It is that the seventh copy disagrees with the first, and nobody finds out until a reconciliation or an inspection.

The fix is not a bigger spreadsheet. It is deciding, once, where each fact lives:

1. Capture once, at hire. The section 29 particulars and the payroll fields overlap almost entirely, so collect them in one intake at the start rather than in three separate conversations. Our guide to automating employee onboarding covers what that intake should ask for.
2. Give every field one owner. A bank account number should be correct in one place and read from there by the payslip, the payment file and the certificate. If it is typed into three systems, it is three facts that happen to agree today.
3. Generate, do not re-enter. The payslip, the EMP201 figures, the UI-19 line and the IRP5 values are all calculations over the same records. They should be produced from those records, not transcribed from each other.
4. Keep the change history, not just the current value. A reconciliation asks what someone earned in June, not what they earn now. A record that only holds the current rate cannot answer that, which is why section 31 asks for a record with entries rather than a current state.
5. Let the deadline find you. The 7th of the month, the reconciliation window and the equity season are known in advance. A reminder built off the same record is the cheapest control in this entire list. We track the fixed ones in SARS deadlines for 2026.

That sequence, capture once, then reuse, then generate, then remind, is the same dependency order that governs every other back office process. We set it out in full in business process automation, and the storage side of it in choosing a document management system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an emailed payslip legal in South Africa?

Section 33(2) requires the written information to be given at the workplace or at a place agreed to by the employee. An emailed or portal payslip meets that where the employee has agreed to receive it there and can open, read and keep it.

Does a payslip have to show hours worked?

Only where hours are relevant to calculating that employee's remuneration. Section 33(1)(g) makes the rate, the ordinary and overtime hours, and Sunday or public holiday hours conditional. A fixed salary with no overtime does not require them.

How long must an employer keep payslips and payroll records?

Section 31(2) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act requires the record described in section 31(1) to be kept for three years from the date of the last entry. Tax records carry their own separate retention periods under tax legislation.

What is the difference between the EMP201 and the UI-19?

The EMP201 is the monthly declaration and payment to SARS covering PAYE, SDL, UIF and ETI. The UI-19 is a separate monthly declaration of employee details and status to the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Paying UIF on the EMP201 does not declare the employee.

What happens if a payslip does not meet section 33?

Non compliance with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act is enforceable by labour inspectors, and a missing or incomplete record weakens the employer's position in any dispute about what was paid. In practice the record is the defence.

Where to start

If the same employee details are currently living in a contract folder, a payroll file, a bank beneficiary list and a spreadsheet, the payslip is not the problem to solve first. The duplication is. A Business Autopsy maps where each fact enters your business, how many times it is re-keyed after that, and which of those copies your returns are actually built on. Start there, then automate what the map shows.

For the wider set of obligations this sits inside, see our business compliance checklist for South Africa, and for the contract that starts the whole record, employment contracts in South Africa.