This month, we take a closer look at the wage premium of affirmative action candidates in South Africa. The premium for blacks is now 23.1% - and for black females is now 36.4% - above their white counterparts.

One of the most important labour market indicators in South Africa is the "affirmative action premium" - the wage premium of affirmative action candidates over their non-affirmative action counterparts, holding constant the level of skills, qualifications, experience, on-the-job performance and other pertinent information so as to reflect purely the race-linked pay discrepancies between candidates. Since much of the required information is not recorded or readily available, Adcorp was able to obtain the required information for only 1,604 permanent placements for the 12-month period June 2011 to May 2012, on which the following analysis is based.

As indicated in the figure, Asians and coloureds earn 2.7% and 7.3% less than whites respectively, whereas blacks earn 23.1% more than whites, for equivalent levels of skills, qualifications, experience and on-the-job performance.

Interestingly, when the figures are dissected further by gender, Asian and black females earn 3.1% and 15.5% more than their male counterparts; whereas coloured and white females earn 25.2% and 20.6% less than their male counterparts.

The data is not consistently available over time, so it is impossible to say for the moment whether the affirmative action wage premium - which applies exclusively to blacks, and most notably to black females - has been rising or falling over time. But Adcorp will track and report on these figures in coming editions of the Adcorp Employment Index.

This is an edited extract from the Adcorp Employment Index for June 2012, July 10 2012

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