More women get top public sector jobs – now what about the private sector?

State Services Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman and Women’s Affairs Minister Jo Goodhew welcomed the release of a new survey showing positive progress for women in the public sector.

The State Services Commission has today released its 2012 Human Resources Capability Survey which has recorded in increase in the number of women appointed to senior leadership roles. At just over 42 per cent, we now have the highest percentage of women in senior leadership positions since the HRC survey began,” Goodhew said.  “I am also pleased to see the continuing decline in the gender pay gap within the public sector to 13.7 per cent, the lowest it has been in the 13 years the survey has been conducted.”

“The record proportion of women in senior leadership in the public sector is obviously an encouraging trend,” added Coleman “There is also a clear trend for the gender pay gap. The survey shows in the 12 months to June the average salary for men moved by 2.6 per cent while the average salary or women moved by 3.3 per cent,” he said.

Staffing: The survey also revealed that staffing levels in the Public Service fell by 250 to 43,345 with the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees decreasing for the third year in a row.

 Salary: The HRC survey reported that the average base salary of Public Service employees increased by 3% to $67,119 from $65,179 in 2011.  This movement, however, is not a direct reflection of the salary increases staff received, as the increase was affected by compositional changes in the workforce, progression within the scale and promotion. The Labour Cost Index which measures changes in wages and salaries in the New Zealand workforce showed the Public Service has lagged the private sector since June 2009.

 Turnover: Core unplanned turnover of Public Service employees increased to 11.4% in 2012 with the average length of service for employees rising slightly to 9.2 years.  In the year up to 30 June 2012, 764 employees in the Public Service were made redundant down from 882 in 2011.  The average redundancy payment increased to $50,650.  Redundancy payments totalled almost $39 million, down from $40 million last year. The average age of public servants continued to increase and in 2012 is 44.6 years.