3. Features of key remuneration concepts

3.1 Comparison of Key Remuneration Components by Classification

The comparison of the different components of the Total Reward (TR) provides an understanding of the proportion that each component contributes to the whole TR.

Table 3.1 provides data on the components of TR across all classifications. It shows the proportion that Base Salary, benefits and bonuses contribute to the TR.

For all classifications, the largest component of TR, apart from Base Salary, is generally the employer superannuation contribution.

Across the non-SES classifications, Base Salary makes up between 84.0% and 86.7% of the TR received by employees. The benefits component makes up between 13.3% and 15.6%, most of which is the employer superannuation contribution.At the SES levels, the benefits component provides a greater contribution to the TR than it does for the non-SES classifications. This varies from 21.1% at the SES 3 classification to 24.4% at the SES 1 classification. The benefits component is primarily composed of the employer superannuation contribution and motor vehicle arrangements.

Bonus payments continue to make up only a minor part of the TR. The use of performance bonus arrangements across all classifications has increased from 16.6% of employees receiving a performance bonus in 2014 to 17.6% in 2015. At the SES classifications, the use of performance bonuses has decreased from 12.3% in 2014 to 7.0% in 2015. Bonuses contribute to between 0.2% and 0.4% of the TR received for the SES classifications and up to 1.1% for the non-SES classifications.

Further information on the breakdown of Base Salary, TRP, and TR can be found in Section 7: Remuneration Findings by Classification.

Table 3.1: Composition of median Total Reward by classification

Classification	Base salary component of TR		Benefit component of TR		Bonus component of TR
	$	%	$	%	$	%
Graduate	60,158	86.7	9,264	13.3	0	0.0
APS 1	47,736	85.8	7,635	13.7	262	0.5
APS 2	54,588	84.9	8,993	14.0	725	1.1
APS 3	61,512	85.2	10,604	14.7	83	0.1
APS 4	69,239	86.1	10,913	13.6	243	0.3
APS 5	74,451	85.0	12,966	14.8	130	0.1
APS 6	86,923	84.7	15,438	15.0	293	0.3
EL 1	108,382	84.9	18,887	14.8	432	0.3
EL 2	133,905	84.0	24,802	15.6	692	0.4
SES 1	181,006	75.2	58,874	24.4	931	0.4
SES 2	232,644	77.4	67,235	22.4	835	0.3
SES 3	312,000	78.7	83,599	21.1	854	0.2

3.2 Motor Vehicle Allowances

Motor vehicle cost is the annualised cost of a motor vehicle that an employee has for private use. This includes the provision of a motor vehicle, running costs, insurance, repairs, maintenance and any fringe benefits tax payable. Cash-in-lieu of a vehicle is the total paid to an employee where they opt for cash instead of a motor vehicle. Table 3.2 combines these allowances by classification.

Consistent with previous years, the use of motor vehicle allowances was low in the non-SES classifications. The highest use of motor vehicle allowances at these classifications was at the EL 2 classification with 2.6% of employees receiving a benefit. The number of employees at other non-SES classifications that received a motor vehicle allowance was very small.

There was a reduction in the proportion of SES employees who received a motor vehicle related allowance from 72.3% in 2014 to 67.8% in 2015.

There was no change in the median amounts paid for motor vehicle benefits for SES 1 and SES 2 employees, and an increase of 3.4% for employees at the SES 3 classification.

Figure 3.1: Proportion of SES employees who received a motor vehicle allowance, 2011 to 2015

Table 3.2: Motor vehicle allowance by classification

Classification	Total employees n	Employees with allowance n	Proportion who received allowance %	P5 $	Q1 $	Median $	Q3 $	P95 $	Average $
Graduate	1,159	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 1	804	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 2	3,265	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 3	15,493	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 4	29,181	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 5	19,835	0	0.0	.	.	.	.	.	.
APS 6	30,673	2	0.0	190	190	3,835	7,479	7,479	3,835
EL 1	24,782	8	0.0	430	3,268	8,205	9,888	14,409	7,195
EL 2	11,335	291	2.6	3,561	23,506	25,208	26,000	31,000	22,631
SES 1	1,897	1,298	68.4	18,500	25,000	26,000	27,522	31,000	25,269
SES 2	528	351	66.5	19,528	25,806	27,000	28,000	33,000	26,225
SES 3	113	72	63.7	19,869	27,818	30,000	30,514	35,000	28,612
Total	139,065	2,022	1.5

3.3 Performance Bonus

Performance bonuses may be available to APS employees through an enterprise agreement or other employment instrument. The availability, eligibility and amounts vary across agencies. While performance is also recognised through other mechanisms such as salary or incremental advancement (which is reflected in Base Salary movement), this section reports only on performance bonus payments.

There were 24,288 employees, or 17.8% of the non-SES workforce, and 178 employees, or 7.0% of the SES workforce who received a performance bonus in 2015.

The proportion of employees who received performance bonuses varied across the non-SES classification levels from 0.3% at the Graduate level to 24.0% at the APS 2 classification.

As few enterprise agreements contain provisions for performance bonuses, the figures and the non-SES classifications have been dominated by an agency which has a high proportion of their workforce at the top of their classification salary ranges. The enterprise agreement covering this agency provides for a bonus payment, in lieu of salary advancement, linked to satisfactory performance.

Figure 3.2 shows that the proportion of SES employees that received a performance bonus in the past five years. The proportion of SES employees that received a bonus in 2015 is about a quarter of the proportion in 2011.

The median performance bonus values decreased across all SES classifications between 2014 and 2015; however the average increased for the SES 2 and SES 3 classifications.

Figure 3.2: Proportion of SES employees who received a performance bonus, 2011 to 2015

Table 3.3: Performance bonus by classification

Classification	Total employees n	Employees with bonus n	Proportion who received bonus %	P5 $	Q1 $	Median $	Q3 $	P95 $	Average $
Graduate	1,159	3	0.3	1,098	1,098	2,231	2,257	2,257	1,862
APS 1	804	75	9.3	435	725	725	725	725	706
APS 2	3,265	784	24.0	599	725	725	725	725	715
APS 3	15,493	3,338	21.5	290	725	725	1,239	1,240	1,025
APS 4	29,181	1,898	6.5	346	725	725	725	3,724	970
APS 5	19,835	4,384	22.1	694	743	743	1,456	1,513	1,178
APS 6	30,673	5,906	19.3	34	868	868	1,019	4,189	1,462
EL 1	24,782	5,193	21.0	968	1,084	1,084	2,159	5,489	1,925
EL 2	11,335	2,707	23.9	1,339	1,339	1,757	5,930	15,047	6,101
SES 1	1,897	133	7.0	2,500	3,222	10,585	14,398	22,409	10,386
SES 2	528	37	7.0	5,000	19,209	21,954	32,106	214,339	48,026
SES 3	113	8	7.1	7,500	15,000	27,493	37,500	661,844	103,666
Total	139,065	24,466	17.6

3.4 Superannuation

The median employer superannuation contribution for the non-SES classifications in 2015 was between 15.4% and 18.0% of the employee's base salary, dependent on the superannuation scheme that individual employees participated in.

APS employee superannuation fund membership has been reported by four categories:

• The Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS);
• The Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (PSS);
• The Public Sector Superannuation Accumulation Plan (PSSap); and
• Other.

As the CSS and PSS closed to new members in 1990 and 2005 respectively, there were no APS employees in the CSS under 40 years of age, and no employees under 25 years of age in the PSS.

There were 64,534 APS employees, or 46.4% of the APS workforce, in the PSS and 59,877 employees, or 43.1% of the workforce, in the PSSap. There has been a slight reduction since last year in the proportion of employees in the CSS and PSS with a corresponding increase in proportion of employees in the PSSap.

Figure 3.3 provides information on the proportional distribution of superannuation scheme membership by classification. As a general trend, the PSSap membership decreases as the classification increases, reflecting this as the default fund in the APS since 2005. Conversely, the proportion of employees in the CSS are higher at higher classifications, reflecting employees who have been in the service for longer.

Only 3.6% of employees were members of the CSS, down from 4.2% in 2014 with approximately 36.1% of them aged 55 years or over. These members represent a notable proportion of the SES workforce: 17.1% at the SES 1 level, 29.9% at the SES 2 level and 35.4% of the SES 3 level.

A high employer superannuation contribution (compared to base salary) can be the result of several things: a higher salary for superannuation purposes; an employee performing an eligible period of higher duties when their superannuation was calculated; and annualising superannuation paid fortnightly, based on ordinary time earnings for a fortnight with a large amount of shift work or overtime. Employer superannuation contributions are shown in Tables 3.6 and 3.7.

Figure 3.3: Employer superannuation contributions by classification

Source: Table 3.4

Table 3.4: Employees by classification and superannuation fund

Classification	CSS		PSS		PSSap		Other
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Graduate	1	0.1	4	0.4	983	84.8	171	14.8
APS 1	23	2.9	167	20.8	492	61.2	122	15.2
APS 2	80	2.5	1,158	35.5	1,726	52.9	301	9.2
APS 3	258	1.7	5,252	33.9	8,754	56.5	1,229	7.9
APS 4	472	1.6	12,285	42.1	14,651	50.2	1,773	6.1
APS 5	486	2.5	8,258	41.6	9,592	48.4	1,499	7.6
APS 6	970	3.2	13,978	45.6	13,540	44.1	2,185	7.1
EL 1	1,183	4.8	14,404	58.1	7,754	31.3	1,441	5.8
EL 2	1,013	8.9	7,443	65.7	2,128	18.8	751	6.6
SES 1	324	17.1	1,271	67.0	186	9.8	116	6.1
SES 2	158	29.9	269	51.0	58	11.0	43	8.1
SES 3	40	35.4	45	39.8	13	11.5	15	13.3
Total	5,008	3.6	64,534	46.4	59,877	43.1	9,646	6.9

Table 3.5: Employees by superannuation fund and age group

Classification	CSS		PSS		PSSap		Other
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Under 20	.	.	.	.	152	95.0	8	5.0
20-24	.	.	.	.	2,710	87.3	395	12.7
25-29	.	.	86	0.7	10,562	87.1	1,482	12.2
30-34	.	.	2,578	14.1	14,080	77.1	1,604	8.8
35-39	.	.	8,624	44.9	9,286	48.4	1,285	6.7
40-44	49	0.2	12,380	59.9	7,151	34.6	1,103	5.3
45-49	865	4.3	12,706	63.3	5,541	27.6	960	4.8
50-54	2,286	10.8	13,252	62.3	4,690	22.1	1,036	4.9
55-59	1,060	7.1	9,631	64.6	3,267	21.9	955	6.4
60 and over	748	8.1	5,277	56.9	2,438	26.3	818	8.8
Total	5,008	3.6	64,534	46.4	59,877	43.1	9,646	6.9

Table 3.6: Employer superannuation contribution as a proportion of Base Salary by classification

Classification	Employees		P5		Q1		Median		Q3		P95		Average
	2014 n	2015 n	2014 %	2015 %	2014 %	2015 %	2014 %	2015 %	2014 %	2015 %	2014 %	2015 %	2014 %	2015 %
Graduate	1,160	1,159	13.8	13.5	15.4	15.4	15.4	15.4	15.6	15.6	16.3	19.2	15.4	15.6
APS 1	918	804	14.7	15.4	15.4	15.4	15.4	15.6	18.7	19.5	22.9	23.5	17.1	17.4
APS 2	3,200	3,264	15.1	15.4	15.4	15.4	16.3	15.6	18.3	18.9	21.8	22.2	17.2	17.1
APS 3	15,871	15,492	15.1	15.4	15.4	15.4	16.3	16.1	19.2	19.9	25.3	28.7	17.9	18.4
APS 4	28,323	29,181	15.1	15.4	15.4	15.4	16.6	16.3	19.1	19.5	22.0	22.3	17.5	17.6
APS 5	19,964	19,835	15.0	15.0	15.4	15.4	16.5	15.8	19.1	19.5	23.6	24.5	17.6	17.8
APS 6	30,447	30,670	14.8	14.9	15.4	15.4	17.3	15.7	19.1	19.5	22.3	23.3	17.5	17.6
EL 1	25,402	24,778	15.1	15.0	15.4	15.4	17.4	18.0	19.0	19.6	21.9	22.5	17.7	17.8
EL 2	11,706	11,328	15.1	15.1	16.0	15.4	17.2	17.9	19.0	19.5	22.2	22.3	17.7	18.0
SES 1	1,794	1,896	15.3	15.0	17.0	16.2	18.4	18.3	20.0	19.9	23.5	23.6	18.5	18.5
SES 2	503	528	15.3	14.7	16.3	15.6	18.4	17.9	20.3	20.1	24.2	23.8	18.6	18.4
SES 3	109	113	14.9	12.3	15.9	15.4	18.4	17.8	20.5	19.5	23.9	23.3	18.4	17.6

Table 3.7: Employer superannuation contribution by classification

Classification	Employees n	P5 $	Q1 $	Median $	Q3 $	P95 $	Average $
Graduate	1,159	8,336	9,016	9,364	9,738	10,655	9,414
APS 1	804	6,028	6,971	7,474	9,090	11,139	8,001
APS 2	3,265	7,431	7,997	8,485	10,247	12,309	9,156
APS 3	15,493	8,545	9,473	9,908	12,186	17,806	11,165
APS 4	29,181	9,624	10,632	11,136	13,502	15,388	12,027
APS 5	19,835	10,635	11,447	11,898	14,666	18,199	13,213
APS 6	30,673	11,898	13,374	14,148	17,231	20,681	15,305
EL 1	24,782	15,340	16,691	19,317	20,984	24,639	19,253
EL 2	11,335	19,161	20,733	24,389	26,547	31,427	24,418
SES 1	1,897	25,591	30,045	33,714	37,431	43,840	34,135
SES 2	528	32,901	37,596	42,660	48,264	56,602	43,608
SES 3	113	35,000	49,689	57,040	62,101	70,200	55,763