Queensland public service jobs: Number of staff earning more than $120,000 jumps by another 3900

Public sector wages are tipped to balloon by another $600 million as new figures reveal an extra 3,900 public servants have been added to the state’s books in just one year.

Public sector wages are tipped to balloon by another $600 million as new figures reveal an extra 3,900 public servants have been added to the state’s books in just one year.

The latest Queensland public sector profile report unveiled today revealed there were 232,553 full time equivalent positions as of March, 2020 – up from the 228,632 recorded the previous year.

Treasurer Cameron Dick defended the figures, saying the government needed to keep funding frontline services, and claimed that the 1.7 per cent growth in employees in the year to March was in line with population growth.

Wages for public servants are forecast to climb to $26.29 billion in 2020-21 – an increase of more than $600 million from the estimated employee expenses of $25.65 billion paid out in 2019-20.

In December, the government had been predicting the wages bill would come in at $25.78 billion for 2020-21, but that is now projected to be about half a billion dollars more.

As of March, about 29,000 public servants were earning at least $120,000 a year, including about 3,324 on a salary of $180,000 and above.

In the six months to March, the number of public servants on salaries of $120,000 plus jumped by about 4,000 – an increase of about 16 per cent.

The vast majority of roles earning above $120,000 were in the health and education sectors and included jobs like nursing directors, medical staff, principals, senior police officers and legal professionals.

Two thirds of the public sector workforce was earning up to $100,000 per year.

About 19,800 positions were classed as “corporate services”, while over 91 per cent of all positions in the public service were deemed frontline or frontline support roles.

“You have to continue to fund the frontline to grow the frontline as a state like Queensland grows,” Mr Dick said on Monday.

“We need to continue to provide, as you’ve heard from the government in recent weeks, the new schools that we are opening. They need to be staffed by teachers.

“We need to keep police officers on the frontline.”

According to the COVID-19 fiscal and economic review documents, the government continues to fall short on its target to keep public service growth to population growth, with staff increasing by 2.2 per cent and population growth at 1.25 per cent.

The Public Service Commission report unveiled today was the first public sector workforce profile released since last year.

About 111,000 of all public sector roles were in Queensland Health, more than 93,000 in the Education Department and 15,900 in Queensland Police.

Originally published as Queensland public service jobs: Number of staff earning more than $120,000 jumps by another 3900