Canberra's senior public servants will get pay rises well above the average level of wage growth across the country, and pollies will also see an increase to their salaries on July 1.
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Head of service Kathy Leigh, directors-general and executives will all see increases of at least 4.7 per cent, while members of the legislative assembly will take home 2.5 per cent more than this year's salary after a decision by the ACT Remuneration Tribunal.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr's salary will increase to $353,833 a year, meaning he will be paid less than Ms Leigh, who will earn $381,524. The other directors-general of the ACT's directorates will earn $350,025.
The base salary for members of the legislative assembly will be $168,492 per year.
The deputy chief minister, ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, opposition leader and deputy opposition leader, and major party whips will all take home between 10 and 80 per cent more than the base.
A government submission to the tribunal raised issues with the workload of committee members and requested the tribunal consider reviewing how that work is remunerated compared to other parliaments, but that request was rejected.
"It is the tribunal's view that this is considered part of the role of an elected member of the Legislative Assembly," the determination said. Chairs of committees will continue to be paid more than other members of the legislative assembly.
Community and Public Sector Union regional secretary Madeline Northam said the union's members were "outraged" by the decision, as many directorates had either recently negotiated 2.5 per cent annual increases or were in the process of negotiating agreements with the same level of increase on the table.
"To see their bosses get almost double that is quite confronting for them," she said.
"The CPSU absolutely welcomes investment in the public service but that investment needs to be more evenly spread and include public servants on the front line delivering services to Canberrans.
"It is really disappointing to see investment in the public service so heavily skewed towards the top."
The pay rises for senior public servants come after the tribunal handed down its final report following a major review, ACT Public Service Executive Remuneration, Allowances and Other Entitlements, in which the tribunal made 22 decisions, many of which were recommendations to the ACT government and head of service.
The review was the first of its kind since the ACT public service came into existence 25 years ago, and informed the pay decision for senior executives.
Pay increases for the executives and wider public service over the past 10 years were examined as part of the review.
"When you have a look at that, the rate of pay for public servants has increased at a significantly faster rate than senior executives," Dr Colin Adrian, chair of the Remuneration Tribunal said.
"It's putting it in a longer-term context and looking at some of the anomalies. The ACT senior executives have fallen behind and if we want to remain competitive it's so important [to decide on the increase]."
Dr Adrian said he wouldn't use the words "one-off" but that he didn't anticipate increases of a similar size would be handed down in future years, as this year's more generous increase.
Ensuring salaries at the top level of the ACT public service were competitive with federal and NSW public servants was also important, Dr Adrian said.
The ACT's political representatives are paid at a similar level to their counterparts in NSW and Victoria, where MPs take home $165,066 and $168,526 as a base salary respectively. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is paid more than Andrew Barr, at $397,655, including an expense allowance, while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had a salary of $377,624.
