Do not pay a recruitment agency to find you work

Do not pay money to get a job or a placement. If someone asks you to pay as part of recruiting you, treat it as a major warning sign. The Department of Employment and Labour advises work seekers not to pay recruitment fees, and the Employment Services Act has a general ban on charging job seekers. There is a narrow transitional exception, which we explain briefly below.

What the Act says

"Work seeker" is the Act's word for a job seeker. The words are "no person", so the rule is not limited to registered agencies.

The same section closes the obvious side doors. A private employment agency may not deduct any amount from your pay, or require or permit you to pay anything, for placing you with an employer (section 15(4)). So the fee cannot come off your first payslip either. And a provision in an agreement with an employee that breaks these rules is invalid and of no force and effect (section 15(6)). If somebody made you sign something agreeing to pay, that clause does not bind you.

The exception, briefly

The Act leaves two narrow routes to a lawful fee. The Minister may publish a notice in the Gazette that allows agencies to charge fees to specified categories of employees, or for specialised services (section 15(2)). Until the Minister does that, a transitional provision in Schedule 2 of the Act lets a private employment agency charge the fees that the older private employment agency regulations, made under the Skills Development Act, allowed.

That is as much of the detail as most job seekers need. Neither route covers a message demanding R250 for a background check, a "registration fee" before anyone has read your CV, or a deposit for a uniform. Treat those as scams.

What the Department has said

The Department of Employment and Labour said it plainly in a media statement on 17 February 2015: private employment agencies are prohibited from charging job seekers any fees for services rendered, and the same provision stops employers or agencies from getting around the ban or making deductions from employees' pay. It repeated the warning in February 2024, when scammers started using the Department's own name to collect fees.

Who pays the agency, and how much

In the ordinary commercial model, the employer does.

On a permanent placement, the agency charges the employer a percentage of the successful candidate's first-year total package. In the fee agreements we have seen, that percentage usually sits between 15% and 25%: lower on high-volume junior roles, higher for scarce skills and senior appointments. That range is our own observation. We have not been able to find a published South African benchmark for agency fees. On an executive search, part of the fee may be paid up front as a retainer, whether or not the role is filled.

What the agency does for that money, and where it adds something a job portal cannot, is in what actually happens to your CV inside a recruitment agency.

Temporary and contract work runs differently. The agency bills the client an hourly or daily rate that covers your wage plus its margin, and pays your wage. The Act requires that agreement to state the two separately: what the employees will be paid, and what the client pays the agency (section 15(5)).

Asking how the fee works

A permanent placement fee is usually linked to the package and earned when you start. Many agreements also carry a guarantee period in which the agency finds the client a replacement if the placement does not work out. That is normal, and it is fair to ask a recruiter how their fee works on your placement.

How consultants are paid varies a lot from one agency to the next. Salaries, commission thresholds, team splits, retainers and temp margins all change the picture.

Recruiters often need to know your notice period, because clients have target start dates. Do not promise an earlier start until your current employer has agreed to release you. And if you are choosing between a R480 000 offer with a difficult manager and a R420 000 offer with a good one, the salary is only one of the things to weigh.

What a real agency may ask for

A legitimate agency may ask for your CV, your references and copies of your ID and qualifications, and it normally asks for your written consent before a background or credit check. If it employs you as a temp, it needs your banking details to pay you. Before there is a written offer, a request for bank details is a strong warning sign.

A request for money, a deposit, your bank card or your PIN is a warning sign at any stage. So is an agency that wants to keep your original documents. The Act is specific: a private employment agency may not "retain the original identity documents or original qualification certificates of work seekers" (section 14(d)). Certified copies, yes. Your originals stay with you.

Searching, saving jobs, keeping a profile, setting alerts and applying on Recruit 360 Jobs are free. Our terms say so under "It is free".

The names a fee hides behind

It is rarely called a fee. It is a registration fee, an admin fee, a background check fee, a uniform deposit, a training or accreditation fee, a courier fee, or a refundable placement deposit. In that list, the word "refundable" is doing most of the work.

South Africa has already had a scam that used the Department of Employment and Labour's own name. In a warning published on 5 February 2024, the Department said scammers were offering admin jobs in its name and asking people to pay "a refundable fee of R250 at PEP stores for background checks". Someone willing to use the Department's name can use an agency's name too. The full pattern is in how to tell whether a job advert is real.

Checking that an agency is registered

There are registration rules for private employment agencies. The Department of Employment and Labour publishes information on registered PEA and TES providers on its PEA and TES page. When we checked in September 2026, the lists there were dated 31 January 2020, so they may not be current.

If you are unsure about an agency, ask for its registration details, then check the agency with the Department or at your nearest Labour Centre. A registered agency can give you those details, so it is a fair question and you can expect an answer.

APSO membership

APSO is a South African industry body for recruitment and staffing agencies. Belonging to it is separate from registering under the law. Membership may count in an agency's favour, but you should still check the agency itself. APSO publishes a code of ethics and a code of professional practice, and it takes ethics complaints against its members.

Where to report an agency that charged you

Take the message, the receipt or the reference number with you, and use whichever of these fits:

• the Department of Employment and Labour, at your nearest Labour Centre, for an agency that is unregistered or charging fees
• the CCMA, or a bargaining council with jurisdiction, for a dispute about how the fee rules apply (section 15(7)); the CCMA does not charge you, and you do not need a lawyer
• the South African Police Service, if money was taken from you by deception (Crime Stop is 08600 10111)
• the Information Regulator, if your personal information was harvested along the way

If it happened through an advert on this site, tell us too, so we can raise it with the agency behind the advert.