Fatter state sector, and better paid

In the final year of the previous Government, the public service expanded at a rate of more than 100 new employees a month.

That was despite National promising to cap the number of public servants to 36,475 across the whole of the public service. That target was breached in 2013 and in the last year, the State Services Commission stopped reporting on the overall cap data.

But in its latest report on the public sector workforce, the commission has detailed a significantly larger workforce that is higher paid, more educated and more ethnically and gender diverse than in previous years.

The Public Service now employed 48,900 people as at June 30, 2017, but it’s unclear whether the sector will come under renewed pressure to cut roles under Labour.

Labour governments have typically run larger public sector workforces and it’s expected a number of the Government’s new policies would require significant additional resources in some areas.

The number of public servants increased by 1357 or 3 per cent, taking it to 47,252 fulltime equivalent employees at the end of June.

That was mostly due to the operation of Mt Eden Prison returning to the Department of Corrections, after control was removed from private operator Serco following the ‘‘fight club’’ controversy, the report said. Corrections is now the largest public service department.

The proportion of part-time workers was trending downwards. Part-time workers in the public service are paid on average 16 per cent less than fulltime workers.

Salaries and education levels had also gone up.

The average annual salary across the public sector in 2017 was $75,416. Salaries varied greatly among departments, ranging from the lowest at $65,701 for the Ministry of Social Development, to the highest average of $134,658 at the State Services Commission.

The ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Women, Transport and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet were among the eight agencies that had average salaries topping $100,000.

The New Zealand Public Service now employs 48,900 people.

Public servants taking sick or domestic leave decreased slightly in 2017 to an average 8.4 days, against 8.6 days in last year. Gender pay gap

However, women looking to work in the public sector should be wary of jobs in Defence and Crown Law – both have gender pay gaps of more than 30 per cent.

They’re the worst offenders according to a new report on the public service workforce from the State Services Commission, which itself has a gender pay gap of 18 per cent.

The commission is leading work to reduce the pay gap across the state sector. New Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter has a target to eradicate the pay gap in the public service, which sits at 12.5 per cent across the board.

It’s a one percentage point improvement on the previous year but more work needed to be done, said State Services Minister Chris Hipkins.

In Defence, the average salary was $124,912 and it had a gender pay gap of 37.8 per cent. Crown Law had an average salary of $98,477 and a pay gap of 30 per cent.

The Education Ministry stood at 24 per cent and Treasury at 21 per cent, while Health, Foreign Affairs, Inland Revenue and Justice all hovered between 15 and 19 per cent.

Hipkins said important progress had been made.

‘‘The public service gender pay gap is now 12.5 per cent, down 1 per cent on 2016. That’s very encouraging but we need to step up momentum.’’

Genter said the Government was committed to ‘‘addressing the gender pay gap within the public service in this Parliamentary term’’.

‘‘We are working with public service chief executives to agree targets to accelerate the pace of change. I amdelighted that all public service chief executives are committed to this effort.

‘‘Ma¯ori and Pasifika women continue to be underpaid for the work that they do, so more attention needs to happen around the reasons why.’’