Unless stated otherwise, this workforce data shows you numbers as at June 2020.
For most visuals, we give you a break down in 3 ways:
At the end of this page, find Excel datasets for June 2015 to June 2020.
Read more about how we define the public sector or see the full list of public sector agencies.
At June 2020, there were:
Executives make up:
Women make up:
Executive gender pay gap at June 2020:
Executive median pay at June 2020:
Executives are the senior leaders of the public sector workforce. They work in a complex and changing environment to deliver on the Government’s priorities.
Collectively, executives manage billions of dollars of assets, huge budgets and large workforces. They oversee the delivery of critical policies and services and manage considerable risk.
What an executive is
A Victorian Public Service executive is employed under Part 3 of the Public Administration Act 2004.
A public entity executive is either a:
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The need to strengthen the capacity of the Senior Executive Service and to respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, bushfire recovery and other emergencies has contributed to the rise in Victorian Public Service executive numbers.
In the Victorian Public Service:
In public entities:
Executive growth in 2018 to 2019 includes the transfer of 90 executives:
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From July 2019 to June 2020, 53% of appointees to Victorian Public Service executive roles were women.
In 2016, the government set a target to have 50% women appointed as Victorian Public Service executives.
'Appointed' means:
Read more about these targets in the Safe and Strong - A Victorian Gender Equality Strategy.
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From July 2019 to June 2020, the government reformed how executive classifications worked to:
The Government:
These are the old and new classifications with their standard titles:
| Old classification | New classification | Standard title |
| Executive Officer 3 | Senior Executive Service band 1 | Director |
| Executive Officer 2 | Senior Executive Service band 2 | Executive Director |
| Executive Officer 1 | Senior Executive Service band 3 | Deputy Secretary |
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The Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal set what the remuneration bands are for all executives in the public sector.
In May 2020, they set the Victorian Public Service executive remuneration bands. They'll also set the public entity executive pay bands.
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In 2020, the number of Victorian Public Service executives by level and the pay gap shows men are more likely to hold more senior and higher-paid roles.
The pay gaps have reduced from:
Using the overall public sector workforce as an example, this is how we measure the pay gap:
So the pay gap for the overall public sector workforce is 5.2%
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Victorian Public Service median executive pay at June 2020 was:
In recent years, more women were promoted into entry-level executive roles. This has influenced the pay gap, as more women are at the lower end of the pay bands.
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Public entity median executive pay at June 2020 was:
For the most up to date data on executives, see our most recent release: 2021 executive numbers, gender and remuneration