Key facts

Executive gender pay gap,  at June 2022:

  • 8.8% for Victorian Public Service executives
  • 0% for public entity executives
  • 6.2% for overall public sector executives.

Executive median pay at June 2022:

  • $245,000 for Victorian Public Service executives
  • $257,112 for public entity executives
  • $252,987 for overall public sector executives.

Executive remuneration and pay bands

Executive remuneration is the total remuneration package (TRP) given to executives. The TRP includes:

  • base salary
  • superannuation contributions
  • any employment benefits specified in the contract of employment
  • the cost of non-monetary benefits paid by the employer, for example, fringe benefits tax.

Read more about the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal and executive remuneration.

Executive remuneration bands

In 2020 the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal made remuneration bands for all public sector executives and public entity executives. The bands are updated each year.

This data doesn’t show any changes that came into effect on 1 July 2022.

Executive pay bands as at June 2022 

For Chief Executive Officers employed by a public entity, the minimum remuneration package is classified as Senior Executive Service (SES) 1 but starts at $139,007 per annum.

Victorian public sector executive remuneration bands

Classification Minimum total remuneration package ($) per annum Maximum total remuneration package ($) per annum
SES 1 199,014 257,111
SES 2 257,112 370,331
SES 3 370,332 493,229

 


Number of Victorian public sector executives by band

 


Distribution of Victorian Public Service executive remuneration by gender

 


Distribution of Victorian public entity executive remuneration by gender

 


Median executive remuneration and gender pay gap

How we work out the gender pay gap

Using Victorian Public Service executives as an example, this is how we measure the pay gap:

  • find out what the median pay is for men ($257,112) and women ($234,490)
  • work out the difference between those two numbers ($257,112 minus $234,490 equals $22,622)
  • express the difference as a percentage of the men’s median salary ($22,622 is 8.8% of men’s median salary of $257,112).

So the pay gap for executives in the Victorian Public Service is 8.8%.

We only report the gender pay gap in a binary way (men and women) because the number of employees with self-described gender identity is currently too small to analyse.

Remuneration and gender pay gap

Victorian Public Service median executive pay at June 2022:

  • $234,490 for women
  • $257,112 for men
  • $22,622 or 8.8% is the pay gap based on median pay.

Public entity median executive pay at June 2022:

  • $257,117 for women and men
  • 0% is the median pay gap.

The gender pay gaps continue to favour men, changing from: 

  • 7.9% at June 2021 to 8.8% at June 2022 for Victorian Public Service executives
  • 1.6% at June 2021 to 0% at June 2022 for public entity executives
  • 5.7% at June 2021 to 6.2% at June 2022 for all executives in the overall public sector workforce.

The gender pay gap for Victorian Public Service executives rose to 8.8% from 6.6% at June 2020 primarily due to:

  • more men employed in higher-paid roles like infrastructure building projects
  • a rise in women promoted to executive roles at entry-level remuneration rates.

 


 

Understanding the gender pay gap for public entity executives

We use the median or ‘middle’ point to calculate the gender pay gap because it’s less influenced by extreme salaries or outliers. The median remuneration for public sector executives in 2022 is the base of the Senior Executive Service-2 (SES-2) remuneration band at $257,112. This is driven by the number of newly appointed executives who started at the base SES-2 remuneration band.

The mean or average gender pay gap is 3.4% or $9,601. This is because of the higher proportion of men earning very high salaries (mainly chief executive officers).

The average pay gap favours men in all classification bands. The largest gap is 5.7% or $26,118 in the SES-3 pay band.


Average gender pay gap by band

Average gender pay gap for executives by band

 


 

Impact of the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority on the pay gap

The Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA) sits within the Transport portfolio.

It’s responsible for infrastructure projects including:

  • Level Crossing Removal
  • North-East Link
  • West Gate Tunnel
  • Major Road Projects Victoria
  • Regional Rail Revival.

Due to the nature of these projects, MTIA employs a large number of high-paid executives. Most of them are men.

This has a large impact on the overall executive remuneration pay gap.

If MTIA executives were excluded, the median gender pay gap for executives would:

  • fall from 8.8% to 5.6% in the Victorian Public Service
  • fall from 6.2% to 5.7% in the overall public sector workforce.

This table shows how including and excluding the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA) impacts the executive gender pay gap in the public sector.

Find out more in the Department of Transport annual report 2021-22.

Responses for Median remuneration of women Median remuneration of men Pay gap as an amount Pay gap as a percentage
Victorian Public Service (including MTIA) $234,490 $257,112 $22,622 8.8%
Victorian Public Service (excluding MTIA) $231,790 $245,517 $13,727 5.6%
Overall public sector (including MTIA) $241,096 $257,112 $16,016 6.2%
Overall public sector (excluding MTIA) $240,063 $254,478 $14,415 5.7%

 


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)