13 December 2018
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has published the 2018 Our People, Public Service Workforce Data, which shows the Public Service is making significant progress in important areas.
The report is a snapshot of trends in the Public Service workforce. The information is collected from staff payroll
data in all 33 Public Service departments at 30 June. The State Services Commission has collected and published this
data since 2000.
The report identifies public service characteristics in workforce, diversity, career, workplace, inclusion,
remuneration and workplace.
This year’s report shows the Public Service has made significant progress towards increased representation of women in
senior management and chief executive roles. It also shows progress in other priority areas including closing the gender
pay gap, gender equity for chief executives, pay equity and diversity.
For the first time, information is presented on the Rainbow community and workplace injuries.
“The report is a useful tool for shining a light on trends and areas that need to improve and informing public debate
about important issues such as the representation of women, the number of women in senior leadership and chief executive
roles, progress on gender pay, the ethnic pay gap and health and safety in the workplace,” Mr Hughes said.
Highlights from the 2018 report: Women in senior management roles continues to increase, now at 49% - up from 48% last
year and 38% in 2008 The number of women in chief executive roles continues to increase. At 30 June, 44% of chief
executives in the 33 Public Service departments were women, up from 41% last year and from 23% five years ago. More than
half of chief executive roles in the Public Service are now held by women (52%). Women represent 61% of public service
employees, which has remained about the same since 2014.
The gender pay gap continued to shrink for the third consecutive year, down from 18.6% in 2000 and 12.5% last year to
12.2% in 2018. This is the lowest gender pay gap in the Public Service since measurement began 18 years ago.
The number of public servants increased by 2,478 (5.2%) to 49,730 full-time equivalent employees at the end of June.
This is in part due to the Government wanting to build more capability within the Public Service.
This increase in public servants increased Asian and Pacific diversity. However, the ethnic pay gap is not improving,
with Māori, Pacific and Asian ethnicities under-represented in the top tiers of management and over-represented in lower
paid occupations The average annual salary in the Public Service in 2018 was $77,900. Average salaries vary greatly
among departments, ranging from the lowest at $67,800 (Ministry of Justice) to the highest average of $141,200 at the
Pike River Recovery Agency.
The proportion of part-time workers continues to trend downwards. Part-time workers in the Public Service are paid on
average 13% less than full-time workers.
Public servants taking sick or domestic leave decreased slightly in 2018 to an average 8.2 days, against 8.4 days last
year.
“I’m very pleased we are making steady progress in the Public Service on some important issues, in particular the
increased representation of women in leadership roles,” Mr Hughes said.
“However, there is more work to be done on pay equity in senior leadership positions. The Commission is stepping up its
focus to address this issue.
“While we have the lowest gender pay gap in the Public Service since measurement began 18 years ago, the rate of
decrease in the last year is the slowest since 2015. We need to redouble our efforts in this area and we are. All chief
executives have signed up to and are committed to the Gender Pay Gap Elimination Action Plan.”
Ethnic diversity in the Public Service is increasing, in particular the representation of Asian and Pacific people, but
the ethnic pay gap and the lack of diversity in senior leadership roles remains a challenge.
“Māori, Pacific and Asian ethnicities are still under-represented in the top three tiers of Public Service management,”
said Mr Hughes.
“This will take time to fix as non-European ethnicities are also under-represented at lower levels of management. We
need a concerted effort across the Public Service to get more Māori, Pacific and Asian people into management jobs and
close the pay gaps as we have done with the gender pay.”
The report is available online as a fully interactive information portal with data stretching back to the year 2000. This means
users can filter and customise the information based on their interests and clearly see trends over time.
“We are being open and transparent about our challenges as well as our achievements as part of our commitment to
building a Public Service that fully reflects the communities we serve”, said Mr Hughes.
ends