2.1 Base Salary
The term Base Salary describes the full-time annualised salary paid to an employee. It includes salary sacrifice amounts (including pre–tax employee superannuation contributions made by salary sacrifice) and excludes bonuses and other benefits.
The median Base Salary movement for all APS classifications from 2012 to 2013 was 3.0%.
The non-SES classifications median Base Salary increased by 2.9% and the SES classifications median Base Salary increased by 3.8% from 2012 to 2013.
Table 2.1 provides 2012 and 2013 Base Salary movement. The greatest increase in median Base Salary was at the Graduate classification with a 6.9% increase. This increase was caused by a shift in the median due to a reduction in the number of graduates in a large agency whose base salary sat below the 2012 median. Generally, the Graduate classification only applies to an employee for one year, so Graduates from one Report to the next are not the same employees – that is, individual Graduates did not receive a 6.9% increase in salary.
The APS 5 and EL 2 classifications had the lowest median movement from 2012 to 2013, both with 2.5%.
The result of low employee mobility over the last few years is that a large proportion of APS employees are remaining at the same classification in the same agency. When employees remain at the same classification for long periods, they are likely to have reached the top of the salary scale for their classification. This is underpins the general trend in the value of the median base salary at the non-SES classification levels being close to the third quartile value.
The SES 3 classification was the only classification that reported a reduction in the value of the 95th percentile in 2013 compared with 2012.
Figure 2.1: Median Base Salary by classification
Source: Table 2.1
Figure 2.2 Base Salary range by classification: Graduate to EL 1
Source: Table 2.1
Note: Refer to Section 7 (remuneration findings by classification) for the minimum and maximum values for each classification.
Note: Refer to Appendix A.2 for notes on interpreting box plots.
Figure 2.3: Base Salary range by classification: EL and SES
Source: Table 2.1
Note: Refer to Section 7 (remuneration findings by classification) for the minimum and maximum values for each classification.
Note: Refer to Appendix A.2 for notes on interpreting box plots.
Class. | Employees | P5 | Q1 | Median | Q3 | P95 | Average | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 n | 2013 n | 2012 n | 2013 n | 2012 n | 2013 n | 2012 n | 2013 n | change % | 2012 n | 2013 n | 2012 n | 2013 n | 2012 n | 2013 n | change % | |
Source: 2012 and 2013 APS Remuneration Reports | ||||||||||||||||
Graduate | 1649 | 1346 | 52327 | 53652 | 55606 | 57513 | 56944 | 60871 | 6.9 | 61036 | 63236 | 63443 | 65029 | 57860 | 60065 | 3.8 |
APS 1 | 1147 | 1164 | 35812 | 36886 | 39722 | 42334 | 43944 | 45263 | 3.0 | 46807 | 48533 | 48241 | 49697 | 43197 | 45065 | 4.3 |
APS 2 | 3731 | 3544 | 47077 | 49009 | 50758 | 52291 | 52998 | 54588 | 3.0 | 53752 | 55096 | 54780 | 56435 | 52142 | 53752 | 3.1 |
APS 3 | 18743 | 17548 | 53623 | 55251 | 56683 | 59318 | 59677 | 61512 | 3.1 | 60671 | 64292 | 60755 | 62560 | 58475 | 60492 | 3.4 |
APS 4 | 30279 | 29656 | 60811 | 63058 | 64285 | 66977 | 66923 | 69038 | 3.2 | 67222 | 69239 | 68088 | 70144 | 65736 | 67995 | 3.4 |
APS 5 | 21268 | 21191 | 67592 | 69185 | 70511 | 72806 | 72487 | 74331 | 2.5 | 73017 | 75208 | 74167 | 76407 | 71688 | 73885 | 3.1 |
APS 6 | 32527 | 32468 | 75543 | 78054 | 80220 | 84318 | 84478 | 86844 | 2.8 | 85669 | 88867 | 86779 | 89400 | 83098 | 85954 | 3.4 |
EL 1 | 28355 | 28117 | 95865 | 99769 | 101366 | 105362 | 104825 | 108013 | 3.0 | 105607 | 108796 | 112933 | 115655 | 104090 | 107410 | 3.2 |
EL2 | 13146 | 13050 | 115390 | 120325 | 125608 | 129878 | 130460 | 133777 | 2.5 | 133647 | 137188 | 146676 | 151097 | 130967 | 135236 | 3.3 |
SES 1 | 2022 | 1939 | 149703 | 155035 | 165555 | 171348 | 172000 | 178330 | 3.7 | 185032 | 191220 | 205897 | 211383 | 175057 | 181571 | 3.7 |
SES2 | 579 | 564 | 193846 | 201111 | 214596 | 221580 | 221266 | 229949 | 3.9 | 235746 | 243841 | 260116 | 267920 | 225174 | 233479 | 3.7 |
SES 3 | 126 | 119 | 251534 | 266855 | 276298 | 287350 | 282931 | 300000 | 6.0 | 314356 | 323787 | 412492 | 389949 | 301639 | 310606 | 3.0 | Total | 154622 | 150706 |