Key facts
Executive median pay at June 2024
- $269,426 for Victorian Public Service executives
- $279,239 for public entity executives
- $276,816 for public sector executives overall.
Executive gender pay gap at June 2024
The executive gender pay gap still favours men but has decreased slightly compared to 2023.
The median (middle point) gender pay gap is:
- 7.5% for Victorian Public Service executives (down from a 7.9% gap in 2023)
- 2.3% for public entity executives (down from a 3.1% gap in 2023)
- 5.4% for public sector executives overall (down from a 5.5% gap in 2023).
The mean (average) gender pay gap is:
- 6.9% for Victorian Public Service executives (down from a 7.8% gap in 2023)
- 5.0% for public entity executives (down from a 5.5% gap in 2023)
- 6.1% for public sector executives overall (down from a 7.0% gap in 2023).
Executive remuneration and pay bands
Executive remuneration is the total remuneration package (TRP) given to executives. The TRP includes:
- base salary
- superannuation contributions
- any employment benefits specified in the contract of employment
- the cost of non-monetary benefits paid by the employer, for example, fringe benefits tax.
Read more about the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal and executive remuneration.
Executive remuneration bands as of June 2024
In 2020, the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal created remuneration bands for all public sector executives and public entity executives. The remuneration range within the bands are reviewed and updated every year.
Victorian Public Service (VPS) executive remuneration bands at June 2024
The VPS executive remuneration bands in the table below are for the 2023 to 2024 financial year. They came into effect on 1 July 2023.
New VPS executive remuneration bands came into effect on 1 July 2024.
| Classification | Minimum total remuneration package (TRP) per annum ($) | Maximum total remuneration package (TRP) per annum ($) |
| SES 1 | 216,376 | 279,238 |
| SES 2 | 279,239 | 401,017 |
| SES 3 | 401,018 | 533,431 |
Number of Victorian public sector executives by pay band
Median executive remuneration and gender pay gap
Between July 2023 and July 2024 median executive pay increased by:
- $14,426 (5.7%) in the Victorian Public Service
- $11,793 (4.4%) in Victorian public entities.
These increases reflect an adjustment to public sector executive pay of 4% plus an extra $1,762 to $2,107 to cover changes to superannuation entitlements at 1 July 2023.
Decreases in the number of executives in the SES-1 and SES-2 bands, particularly in the Victorian Public Service, may also have contributed to the increase in the median executive remuneration.
Remuneration and gender pay gap
Victorian Public Service median (middle point) executive pay at June 2024:
- $258,401 for women
- $279,238 for men
- the median executive pay gap is $20,837 or 7.5% (down from $21,143 or 7.9% in 2023).
Public entity median (middle point) executive pay at June 2024:
- $274,262 for women
- $280,566 for men
- the median executive pay gap is $6,304 or 2.2% (down from $8,500 or 3.1% in 2023).
Overall public sector median (middle point) executive pay at June 2024:
- $264,299 for women
- $279,239 for men
- the median executive pay gap is $14,940 or 5.4% (from $14,572 or 5.5% in 2023).
Industries with the highest median (middle point) executive gender pay gap include:
- Public health care (14.1% or $43,967)
- Police and emergency services (9.0% or $26,039).
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 ($279,238 total remuneration package) and women ($258,401 total remuneration package)
- work out the difference between those 2 numbers ($279,238 minus $258,401 equals $20,837)
- express the difference as a percentage of the men’s median salary ($20,837 is 7.5% of men’s median salary of $279,238).
So the pay gap for executives in the Victorian Public Service is 7.5%.
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.