The number of performance bonuses paid to public servants dropped by six per cent last year, with just over 18,000 employees taking home a bonus on top of their salaries, the 2017 Remuneration Report has revealed.
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Base salaries across the public service rose by 2.5 per cent between 2016 and 2017, with a 2.6 per cent increase for SES staff.
The report noted that 57 per cent of public servants were in the four largest departments – Human Services, the Tax Office, Home Affairs and Defence, influencing median figures. Human Services, the ATO and Defence were among the 39 finalised enterprise agreement ballots that year, with most agreements beginning in 2017 offering a 3 per cent front-loaded general wage increase, the report said.
The rate at which performance bonuses has been paid has been decreasing over the past five years, the report said, with few enterprise agreements allowing for bonuses to be paid. Around 76 per cent of all bonuses were paid by one agency, "which has a provision for a one-off performance bonus payment, in lieu of salary advancement for staff at the top of their salary range," the report said.
The median payments for various allowances has ballooned between 2013 and 2017, but the rate at which allowances are paid has declined, the report said. In 2013, the median "market related specific job" allowance, which is paid for specialised experience in a role, was $2000. In 2017, it had grown to $14,433. Similarly, income maintenance allowances, and individual performance allowances have also risen. The rise in allowances indicates agencies may be finding other ways around strict limits enforced through the government's workplace bargaining policy.
The gender pay gap in the public service closed slightly in 2017, but men still outnumber women at the top pay levels.
The average base salary for men in the public service last year was $94,428 - 8.4 per cent above the average salary for women at $86,529. This is a small decrease in the gap from 2016, when it was 8.6 per cent. The gap is significantly below the gender pay gap for the whole Australian workforce, which the Workplace Gender Equality Agency clocked at 15.3 per cent in February this year.
While there is now the same number of women as men leading departments as secretaries, and the overall gap is decreasing, the report showed that women outnumber men in the lowest two pay quartiles, while there are slightly more men than women in the highest quartile.
There are more women than men in graduate roles and every level up to EL1, but men outnumber women at EL2 and every level up to SES3.
The gender pay gap information measures only base salary, excluding allowances and bonuses.
The main public sector union said the government needs to do more to address pay inequality.
"This disgraceful lack of political leadership is the reason women in the public service still earn 8.4 per cent less than men and are under-represented in high level positions," Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood said.
"The union repeatedly urged the government to use the enterprise bargaining process to address the gender pay gap, not only by introducing more flexible working arrangements, but by restoring pay equity provisions introduced by Labor but stripped out by the Coalition," she said.
