Number of executives

Key facts

At June 2022, there were:

• 1,916 executives in the Victorian Public Service
• 1,138 executives in Victorian public entities
• 3,054 executives in the overall public sector workforce.

Executives make up:

• 3.4% of Victorian Public Service employees
• 0.4% of public entity employees
• 0.9% of the overall public sector workforce.

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Role of executives

Executives are the senior leaders of the public sector workforce. They work in a complex and changing environment to deliver on the Government’s priorities.

Collectively, executives manage billions of dollars of assets, huge budgets and large workforces. They oversee the delivery of critical policies and services and manage considerable risk.

What an executive is

A Victorian Public Service executive is employed under Part 3 of the Public Administration Act 2004.

A public entity executive is either:

• a Chief Executive Officer of a public entity
• an employee whose remuneration is equal to or greater than the base of the Victorian public sector executive remuneration range and whose primary role is to lead and give direction to other employees.

At June 2022, the base remuneration for executives in the Victorian public sector was $199,014.

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Number of executives

From 2021 to 2022, the number of Victorian Public Service executives rose to meet demands for leadership in social policy areas and to help manage the impacts of COVID-19. 

In 2022, many COVID-19 programs and initiatives came to an end and the growth in executive numbers started to decline.

Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2017 Filter by industry Whole of public sector Public entities Victorian Public Service Creative industries, finance, transport and other Police and emergency services Public health care TAFE and other education Water and land management Government schools Filter by demographic Overall Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Age Full-time or part-time Ongoing, fixed-term or casual Ongoing or fixed-term Cultural identity Disability Gender Gender identity Religion Headcount Full-time equivalent Employers Percentage of all employees by headcount Percentage of all full-time equivalent employees Remuneration Remuneration gap as an amount Remuneration gap as a percentage View as a number or percentage Percentage Number Salary Percentage of industry Percentage of total public sector workforce

 

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Executive movements, July 2021 to June 2022

Victorian Public Service:

• 621 executives started
• 421 executives left.

Public entities:

• 332 executives started
• 247 executives left.

Machinery of Government impacts, July 2019 to June 2020

Executive growth in 2018 to 2019 includes the transfer of 90 executives: 

• from VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria 
• to Major Transport Infrastructure Authority and Department of Transport.

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Data set

This data set covers June 2018 to June 2022.

We source this data from our annual workforce and executive data collections that cover over 1,800 Victorian public sector employers.

Executive profile

This file has the following executive profile measures for the Victorian public sector:

• executive headcount by industry, gender, age group and classification band
• executive median remuneration and headcount for each remuneration cohort, by industry group, gender and classification band.

It also has:

• total number of executives for each departmental portfolio group by gender
• total number of Victorian Public Service executives for each Victorian Public Service organisation by gender.

Download executive profile data set (XLSX, 121KB)