Public sector bosses earn less

Total remuneration for public sector bosses has fallen.

The finding comes in the State Services Commissioner’s report on the remuneration of chief executives and other senior personnel in the Public Service and State sector for the year to 30 June 2011.

The report says decreases in expenditure of 3% and 2% occurred in 2009/10 and 2010/11 respectively.

The lower chief executive salary bill reflected “an environment of fiscal restraint” and “a reduced number of Public Service chief executives, as a result of agency mergers.”

Commissioner Iain Rennie advises on or approves the proposed terms and conditions of 109 Crown entity chief executives.

(The Commissioner listed remuneration in a band of $10,000 - e.g. $960,000 to $969,999. For brevity, NBR has quoted the top of the range.)

The top earner was Treasury secretary John Whitehead, who took home between  $969,999 during a truncated year (in May 2011 he left to take up a role with the World Bank, replaced by UK-import Gabriel Makhlouf).

ACC chief executive Jan White (recently replaced by Ralph Stewart) earned $589,999.

Others near the top of the ACC’s charts included the heads of the Ministry of Education ($669,999), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade ($589,999), Ministry of Justice ($609,999) and (Ministry of Social Development ($599,999).

It also pays to run a university.

University of Auckland vice chancellor Stuart McCutcheon is on the best wicket, with $649,999 remuneration, with the heads of other universities earning between $400,000 and $549,000.

The heads of the larger District Health Boards are clustered around the half million dollar mark, with the highest earner being Auckland DHB boss Gary Smith on $549,999.

Outside the big government departments, universiities and DHBs, salaries varied widely.

EQC boss Ian Simpson took home $339,999 while the heads of the Families Commission ($189,000), Drug Free Sport New Zealand ($129,999) and the Artificial Limb Board ($169,000) are relative paupers by public sector standards.

Read the full report online here.