The jobs that typically pay more than $400,000 in Australia

Australia’s most senior bureaucrats are typically being paid more than $400,000 a year, a new report has revealed.

Federal public servants in Canberra, at the highest grade, are paid more than cabinet ministers who have been elected to Parliament and face the voters at least once every three or six years.

The Australian Public Service Commission has revealed these public servants – in the senior executive service three (SES3) category – last year had median total remuneration packages with bonuses of $448,253

The government executives who usually take up these roles are highly educated, and often have decades of experience in managerial roles in the public and, sometimes, corporate sectors.

Their mid-point base salary before bonuses was $376,578, the annual remuneration report for 2021 showed.

Their pay levels rose by 4.2 per cent, a level much more generous than the broader wage price index increase of 2.4 per cent.

By comparison, cabinet ministers last year were paid $356,406 before travel allowances, with that base pay rising on July 1 to $374,429 under new Remuneration Tribunal rules.

The top five per cent of public servants in the SES3 category had total pay packages of $512,612.

This was less than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s new base pay of $564,356 but more than his deputy Richard Marles, who is also Defence Minister, on $444,973.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is also Leader of Government in the Senate, are both paid $406,988.

Across the commonwealth public service, the median base salary was $90,796, with pay last year rising by three per cent, with these figure also including those who didn’t continue in the job.

The median total remuneration package for public servants was $105,743.

Those in the senior executive service had a middle base pay of $222,947 rising to $269,775 when total remuneration with performance bonuses was factored in.

Both were higher than a member of Parliament’s base salary of $217,060.

The mid-point base graduate salary for a public servant was $67,661, with six-figure median salaries not kicking in until executive level one (EL1) on $119,651.

The Australian public service last year had 132,602 employees with continuing employment.

Of those, just 121 were in the most senior SES3 category compared with 1,638 graduates.

The APS6 grade had the most employees –  32,783 – with a median base salary of $95,873.

The typical public servant, across all grades, had a mid-point base salary before bonuses of $93,864, with this figure covering those with ‘ongoing’ employment.

This was higher than Australia’s average, full-time salary of $90,917 and well above the average taxable income of $63,882 in 2019-20.