Wage growth became a topical issue when global and domestic consumer price inflation accelerated significantly following the resumption of economic activity after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions were gradually lifted as from the second half of 2020 and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This raised the cost of living – a scenario which could manifest in wage pressures and further inflation. In South Africa, real wage growth contracted as nominal wage growth moderated to below inflation, as measured by the headline consumer price index (CPI), in an environment of challenging domestic economic conditions amid, among other factors, higher production costs due to intensified electricity load-shedding. This note discusses the different measures of wage growth in South Africa, supplemented with a correlation analysis and recent trends in wage growth, labour productivity and unit labour cost.