Comparison of key remuneration components by classification

The comparison of the different components of the whole remuneration package provides an understanding of the contribution that each component makes to the whole.

Table 3.1 provides data on the makeup of remuneration paid across all classifications. It provides the proportion that Base Salary, benefits and bonuses makes on remuneration as a whole.

For all classifications the largest component of remuneration apart from Base Salary is the employer superannuation contribution.

Across the non-SES classifications, the Base Salary makes up between 84.4% and 87.0% of the remuneration received by employees. The TRP component makes up between 13.0% at the Graduate classification and 15.1% at the APS 1 level: most of which is the employer superannuation contribution.

At the SES level, the benefits component provides a greater contribution to the whole remuneration package compared to the non-SES classifications, varying from 20.8% at the SES 3 classification to 24.3% at the SES 1 classification. The benefits component is primarily composed of the employer superannuation contribution and motor vehicle benefits.

Bonus payments continue to make up only a minor part of the whole remuneration package. The use of performance bonus arrangements has continued to decline. Bonuses only contribute to between 0.4% and 0.9% of all remuneration received in the SES classifications and up to 1.6% for the non-SES classifications.

Further information on the breakdown of Base Salary, TRP, and Total Reward can be found in Section 7: Remuneration Findings by Classification.

Motor vehicle allowances

The motor vehicle cost is the annualised cost of a motor vehicle for which the employee was able to use for private use. This includes the provision of a motor vehicle, running costs, insurance, repairs, maintenance and any fringe benefits tax payable. Cash–in–lieu of a vehicle is the total paid to an employee where they opted for cash instead of a motor vehicle provided for private use. Table 3.2 combines these allowances by classification.

Consistent with previous years, the use of motor vehicle allowances or cash in–lieu of motor vehicle allowances in 2013 was low in the non-SES classifications. The highest use of motor vehicle allowances at these classifications was at the EL 2 classification with 2.4% of employees receiving a benefit; all other classifications were at or below 0.3%.

There was a very small proportion of APS 3 to APS 6 employees who received a motor vehicle benefit in 2013. These employees tend to work with out–reach programs requiring a significant amount of driving from site to site on daily basis to enable them to undertake their duties. These vehicles are available for private use and hence are included in the data.

At non-SES classifications, there was no change in the usage of motor vehicle allowances.  That is, the proportion of the total non-SES l employees as a whole who received an allowance showed no change from last year.

At the SES classifications, the number of employees who received a motor vehicle benefit decreased from 2,110 SES employees in 2012 to 1,953 in 2013. There was a reduction in the proportion of SES employees who received some form of motor vehicle related allowance with 77.4% in 2012, to 74.5% in 2013.

Both the median and average amounts paid for motor vehicle benefits increased for all SES classifications. The median increases were $42 for SES Band 1, $72 for SES Band 2, and $646 for SES Band 3.

Performance bonus

Performance bonuses may be available to APS employees through an enterprise agreement or other employment instrument, for example a Common Law Contract. The availability, eligibility and amounts vary across agencies. While performance is also recognised through other mechanisms such as salary or incremental advancement (which is reflected in Base Salary movement) this section reports only on performance bonus payments.

There were 22,055 employees (14.9%) of the non-SES workforce, and 331 (12.6%) of the SES workforce who received a performance bonus in 2013.

The proportion of employees who received performance bonuses varied across the non-SES classification levels from 0.0 % at the Graduate level to 25.0% at the EL 2 classification.

There has been an increase in the number of non-SES employees receiving a bonus compared with the last report.  his is due to increasing numbers of employees reaching the top of the salary range for their classification, in agencies with an enterprise agreement that provides a performance bonus at the top of the range, in lieu of salary advancement.

Due to the low proportion of use of performance bonuses at the non-SES classifications, the figures at these classifications have been dominated by a single large agency with a high proportion of their workforce at the top of their classifications’ salary ranges, and an enterprise agreement that provides for a bonus payment in lieu of salary advancement.

The proportion of SES employees who received a performance bonus in 2013 dropped noticeably when compared to 2012, as can be seen in Table 3.3 below. The ceasing of a performance bonus arrangement in an agency large enough to affect the proportions has had a significant effect on these figures. That agency rolled the averaged value of the performance bonus arrangement into base Salary.

Both the median and average performance bonus values increased across all SES classifications between 2012 and 2013.

Superannuation

The median employer superannuation contribution for Graduate to EL 2 classifications in 2013 was between 15.4% and 17.1% of the employee’s base salary.

Table 3.6 ‘Number of employees by superannuation fund and age group’ provides important information for workforce planning. Due to the nature of the scheme, the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) may provide a disincentive for its members to work beyond 55 years of age in some circumstances.

APS employee superannuation fund membership has been reported by four categories:

• The Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS);
• The Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (PSS);
• The Public Sector Superannuation Accumulation Plan (PSSap) and
• ‘Other’.

As the CSS and PSS closed to new members in 1990 and 2005 respectively, there were no APS employees in the CSS from 35–39 years of age and below, and the under 20 years of age category in the PSS.

There were 74,324 APS employees, or 49.3% of the APS workforce, in the PSS and 59,932 employees, or 39.8% of the workforce, in the PSSap. There has been a slight reduction since last year in the proportion of employees in the CSS and PSS with a corresponding increase in proportion of employees in the PSSap.

Figure 3.1 provides information on the proportional distribution of superannuation scheme membership by classification. As a general trend, the PSSap membership decreases as the classification increases reflecting this as the ‘choice’ fund in the APS since 2005.  Conversely, the proportion of employees in the CSS are higher at higher classifications reflecting employees who have been in the service for longer.

Only 5.1% of APS employees were members of the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme, down from 5.6% in 2012 with approximately 34.5% of them aged 55 years or over. These members represent a significant proportion of the SES workforce: 23.8% at the SES 1 level, 34.7% at the SES 2 level and 38.7% of the SES 3 level.

A high employer superannuation contribution (compared to base salary) can be the result of several things: a higher salary for superannuation purposes, an employee performing an eligible period of higher duties when their superannuation was calculated, and annualising superannuation paid fortnightly based on ordinary time earnings for a fortnight with a large amount of shift work or overtime. Data is shown in Table 3.7.