Gender, as defined in the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender is ‘part of a person’s personal and social identity. It refers to the way a person feels, presents and is recognised within the community. A person’s gender may be reflected in outward social markers, including their name, outward appearance, mannerisms and dress’ [1] .
At June 2019, the ACTPS consisted of employees who identified as male, female and Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified (referred to as Gender X). Employees who identify as Gender X are those individuals who do not exclusively identify as male or female (i.e. a person of a non-binary gender) [2] .
For the purposes of reporting in the 2018-19 State of the Service Report, gender information is presented as male/female only. While the ACTPS recognises that there are employees who identify as a gender other than male or female, for privacy reasons this information is not included where data has been broken down by gender.
At June 2019, the ACTPS workforce comprised of 15,173 female employees which is equivalent to 65.4 per cent of the workforce (based on headcount). Similar to last year, the representation of females in the ACTPS is approximately 17 per cent higher than the representation of females in the ACT labour force (49.0 per cent at June 2019) [3] , and approximately 18 per cent higher than in the Australian labour force (47.0 per cent at June 2019) [4] . In comparison, male employees total 8,027 or 34.6 per cent of the ACTPS.
Illustrated in Graph 3 is the number of female and male employees by age group. Like last year, there are more females than males in all age groups across the ACTPS, with the exception of the less than 20 age group and the over 70 cohort. Given females make up 65.4 per cent of the total ACTPS workforce, the higher proportion of females in each age group is to be expected. Of all the age groups, the highest proportion of females is in the 30-39 age group at 69.2 per cent. The lowest proportion of females is in the age group under 20 at 47.5 per cent.
Graph 3 – Gender Profile by Age (June 2019)
At June 2019 the average salary of females in the ACTPS was $93,911 and the average salary of males was $95,363.
The gender pay gap for the 2018-19 reporting year is 1.5 per cent. This means that females in the ACTPS are paid slightly less than their male counterparts, with the average female earning $0.98 for every $1 earned by males. From June 2018 to June 2019 the gender pay gap reduced by 0.8 per cent. While it is difficult to conclusively determine reasons for the reduction in gender pay gap, a likely attributing factor is the increase in the number of female staff in the greater than $90,000 salary range. In 2018-19 there were 50 per cent of female staff in the greater than $90,000 salary range, as shown in Graph 4. This compares with 44.7 per cent of males falling in the same group.
Comparatively in 2017-18, the percentages for the greater than $90,000 salary range were 46.2 per cent female and 42.4 per cent male. The growth in the number of staff represented in the greater than $90,000 range for 2018-19 is 13.1 per cent for females while males increased 9.3 per cent. Of the entire increase in staff over $90,000, 74.1 per cent were female and 25.9 per cent were male. When compared to the gender split of the ACTPS, this indicates that a higher proportion of female staff moved into the greater than $90,000 salary range in 2018-19, bringing the average salary up and closing the gender pay gap.
Research continues to identify and support that gender pay gaps are lower in those organisations with higher representation of females in executive leadership roles [5] . This is certainly the case for the ACTPS with 52.5 per cent of the Senior Executive Service being females, an increase from 46.1 per cent in 2017-18.
In the ACTPS, females and males undertaking the same job receive the same remuneration. That is, females and males with the same role and responsibilities receive the same salary (for example a female and a male in an Administrative Services Officer Class 6 position receives the same salary, just as a female and a male in a Classroom Teacher 1 position receives the same salary).
Graph 4 – Gender Profile by Salary Range (June 2019) [6]
Graph 4 shows the number of male and female employees across different salary groups in the ACTPS. There are significantly more females in the $60,000-$119,000 salary groups, while in the under $59,000 and over $120,000 salary groups the number of females and males is more similar.
Over the past year the number of females has increased in all salary groups above $60,000. The highest increase was within the $60,000 to $79,000 range from 3,805 in 2018 to 4,291 in 2019, an increase of 486 female employees. Comparatively, over the same period the number of males has remained consistent across all salary ranges.
Females hold 52.5 per cent of Senior Executive positions in the ACTPS, a proportion that has increased by roughly ten per cent over the past five years (43.1 per cent at June 2014). Of those Senior Executive positions five out of eight Directors-General are females.
Females working in the ACTPS hold a diverse range of professions, including: Administrative Officers, Ambulance Officers, Fire and Rescue Officers, Information Technology Officers, Teachers and Transport Officers. At June 2019 the professions with the highest proportion of female employees were: Nurses and Midwives (86.1 per cent), Health Assistants (82.8 per cent), Health Professional Officers (80.6 per cent), Teachers (76.8 per cent), Legal Support Officers (75.0 per cent), Legal Officers (74.8 per cent) and Administrative Officers (74.4 per cent).
Graph 5 provides an overview of the average salary growth of females over the last five years in comparison to other diversity groups and the overall ACTPS workforce.
Graph 5 – Comparison of average salary (June 2015 - June 2019)
[1] Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender, Australian Government, 2013,
[2] ibid
[3] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Australia 6202.0
[4] Ibid
[5] Cassells R, Duncan A and Ong R (2017), Gender Equity Insights 2018: Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Workplace Gender Equality Agency - Gender Equity Series, Issue #2, March 2017.
[6] Data for Gender Profile by Salary Range excludes casuals.