Infographic: public servant pay more top-heavy than other countries

Australian bureaucrats’ pay is skewed towards high earners when compared to other OECD countries. Senior managers do especially well compared to other governments.

Australia’s senior public servants are relatively well-paid compared to colleagues in other rich countries, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data.

Senior managers do especially well: when compared to other countries on measures of purchasing power parity, Australia is third only to New Zealand and Italy.

Senior managers’ pay relative to other tertiary-educated people in the country also sees Australia coming third. Australian level 1 senior managers earn 4.8 times the average Australian tertiary-educated salary, while in NZ it’s 7.8 times.

When these numbers are compared to GDP per capita, however, Australia places closer to the OECD average — our relatively high per capita income tends to skew the raw numbers.

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