Executive Summary

Public Service staff numbers have increased

The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees has increased from 44,500 in 2013 to 45,280 (+1.8%). The number of FTE staff in Core Government Administration  (refer to page 6) has remained below the cap, at 35,656. The Wellington region, being the main central administration, had the largest proportion of this Public Service workforce with 41.4%. This was followed by Auckland (20.0%), Canterbury (9.6%) and Waikato (8.4%). These four regions accounted for 79% of the Public Service workforce.

The average salary of Public Service employees has increased by 2.5%

The HRC survey has measured the movement in average salary for the Public Service as 2.5% (2.1% in 2013). This movement is not a direct reflection of the salary increases staff receive, it is affected by both compositional changes in the workforce, and progression within the scale and promotion increases.

In the year to June 2014, the Labour Cost Index (LCI) measured an increase in wages and salaries of 1.2% for the public sector. Within the public sector, the Public Service moved by 1.1%, the education sector by 1.2% and the health sector by 0.7%. In comparison, the private sector increased by 1.8%. The LCI controls for a constant quality and quantity of labour.

Redundancies are decreasing

In the year to 30 June 2014, 440 employees in the Public Service were made redundant (down from 696 in 2013). Redundancy payments totalled $25 million. This compares to $33 million last year and $38 million four years ago.

There has been an increase in diversity in Senior Leadership over the last four years.

There has been an increase in the proportion of Māori senior leaders, from 8.3% in 2010 to 12.0% in 2014. Māori are still under-represented in senior leadership, compared to their representation in the Public Service workforce (16.6%). The proportion of Asian senior leaders has increased over the last four years (from 1.7% to 2.4%). There has been little increase in Pacific senior leaders over the last four years. 42% of senior leadership roles are filled by women.

The gender pay gap is a complex issue, with many factors at play

In 2014, the unadjusted gender pay gap is about the same as last year, at 14.1%. This report looks at controlling for factors such as occupation, seniority and age, and presents an adjusted pay gap of 5.3%.

Other HR measures are similar to last year

Core unplanned turnover remains stable at 10.7% in 2014. The average length of service for employees in the Public Service has stayed the same at 9.2 years. The amount of sick leave and domestic leave taken by Public Service employees decreased slightly to an average of 7.7 days per employee (from 7.9 days in 2013).