What your boss gets paid: The APS secretaries’ salaries list

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The Mandarin has trawled through federal departments’ annual reports for the last financial year to rank each secretary by two measures: total remuneration and base salary.

The list below ranks secretaries from their respective department’s 2021-22 reports based on total remuneration, including superannuation contributions and termination benefits. We’ve marked those who have changed roles.

1. Simon Atkinson* (Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications): $1,635,068
2. Phil Gaetjens* (Prime Minister and Cabinet): $1,264,538
3. Greg Moriarty (Defence): $942,727
4. Kathryn Campbell* (Social Services, Foreign Affairs and Trade): $931,759
5. Michael Pezzullo (Home Affairs): $918,905
6. Michele Bruniges (Education, Skills and Employment): $881,712
7. Andrew Metcalfe (Agriculture, Water and the Environment): $876,779
8. Brendan Murphy (Health): $849,577
9. David Fredericks** (Industry, Science, Energy and Resources): $824,114
10. Steven Kennedy (Treasury): $809,496
11. Rosemary Huxtable* (Finance): $765,764
12. Raymond Griggs (Social Services): $762,058
13. Liz Cosson (Veteran’s Affairs): $741,312
14. Katherine Jones (Attorney-General’s): $731,179
15. Robert Stefanic (Parliamentary Services): $459,937
16. Glyn Davis (Prime Minister & Cabinet): $70,902

*No longer in the role

**Has moved to become secretary of DCCEEW

It’s important to note that Campbell’s salary combines her time as secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Social Services during the 2021-22 financial year.

Atkinson, who topped the list for total remuneration, was paid $796,403 in termination benefits. He left the public service as part of the post-election bureaucratic shake-up.

In second place was Gaetjens, who was paid $407,940 in termination benefits after being replaced by Davis as the top bureaucrat in the federal public service.

The same list of bureaucrats by base salary – without termination payouts or super – reshuffled the list.

1. Andrew Metcalfe (Agriculture, Water and the Environment): $831,861
2. Greg Moriarty (Defence): $810,364
3. Brendan Murphy (Health): $807,946
4. Kathryn Campbell* (Social Services, Foreign Affairs and Trade): $802,255
5. Michael Pezzullo (Home Affairs): $792,049
6. Steven Kennedy (Treasury): $775,193
7. Phil Gaetjens (Prime Minister & Cabinet): $729,896
8. Raymond Griggs (Social Services): $720,180
9. Simon Atkinson (Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications): $719,248
10. Michele Bruniges (Education, Skills and Employment): $710,128
11. Rosemary Huxtable (Finance): $706,937
12. David Fredericks (Industry, Science, Energy and Resources): $702,722
13. Liz Cosson (Veterans’ Affairs): $693,546
14. Katherine Jones (Attorney-General’s): $625,994
15. Robert Stefanic (Parliamentary Services): $421,578
16. Glyn Davis (Prime Minister & Cabinet): $67,957

* Combined departmental salaries

It’s worth noting the above numbers are different to the packaging in the Remuneration Tribunal decisions. For example, Treasury secretary Kennedy should be on an $892,290 total package based on the legislation governing the Remuneration Tribunal but is on $809,496, according to the annual report.

Secretaries can decide to receive a different benefit instead of a superannuation contribution for their total package, such as a commonwealth-provided vehicle.

For more on how the tribunal works see here, and who sits on it see here.

At the bottom of the above lists is the new PM&C secretary Glyn Davis, who was only in the role from June 6 to June 30 during the previous financial year.

Public v private salaries

With the ongoing debate about staff attraction to the public sector versus the private sector, the secretaries’ salaries list provides a point of comparison on what the ceiling is in the federal public service.

For comparison, the AFR reported in April that partners at PwC, one of the Big Four consultancies, had a targeted income between $340,000 for junior partners and $3.7 million for senior partners.

Noting the leakage of junior staff from the public to private sector, the ongoing APS hierarchy review found the APS was becoming “progressively top heavy” with the number of SES increasing by 40% over the past 20 years.

Gender disparity

On gender, the male secretaries’ base salary was an average of $731,104 while the women’s base salary was $707,772, or a gender pay gap of $23,332 or 3.3%.

Albeit with a small data set, this means the gender pay gap at a secretary level is smaller than the wider gender pay gap at 6% for the wider APS, based on the Australian Public Service Remuneration Report 2021.

Two women made it into the top 10 for both the total remuneration and the base salary list: Campbell from Social Services/Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Bruniges from Education.

According to the APSC’s diversity report, Our Differences make us stronger, women make up 44.6% of people at the SES Band 2-3 level, with the report noting gender parity hadn’t been achieved in senior APS leadership.

The above lists were for the last financial year, so it doesn’t include the machinery of government changes made after the new government came into power.

Click here for all stories in The Mandarin’s Movers & Shakers: Platinum Edition.