More than a quarter of Queensland officials earn at least $ 120k

The workforce of the public service of Queensland is swollen to more than 320,000 employees, with almost 30 percent of government employees now earning at least $ 120,000.

From a new report that is being released today, it reveals that the Personal File of the Government of Queensland consisted of approximately 270,883 full -time equivalent (FTE) roles from March this year.

It represents an increase of 5 percent of 258,012 FTEs in March 2024, with the majority of growth attributed to an increase in health workers.

When this is converted into a total workforce, which takes part -time employees into account, the number of employees in this period climbed from 308,033 to 322,600.

The details are included in the annual State of the Sector Report, the first snapshot of public service since the new LNP government came to power last year.

How many officials earn?

When looking at the total workforce, around 64,500 employees earned between $ 120,000 and $ 149,999 a year – equal to about one in five employees from March.

This has risen 38 percent of the 46,753 employees in this wage bracket at the same time last year, when they made up for 15.2 percent of public services.

Another 19.001 employees – or 5.89 percent of the total workforce – earned between $ 150,000 and $ 179,999 from March of this year.

This reflected an increase of 66.7 percent compared to a year earlier when there were 11,397 employees in this income category.

Employees who earned more than $ 180,000 a year were 2.3 percent of the workforce – or a total of 7,439 employees, compared to 5,880 employees 12 months earlier.

In general, the number of employees who earned at least $ 100,000 a year was 44.7 percent of public service and those who earned at least $ 120,000, accounting for 28.2 percent.

In the last government budget, the government predicted that it would spend almost $ 38 billion on the wages of public services in 2025-26, with this set to reach around $ 42 billion by 2028-29.

Frontline versus business growth

The government of Queensland is the largest employer in the state.

The sector report shows that FTE business roles – including legal services, marketing and human resources – increased by 3.45 percent in the past year.

For comparison, FTE Key Frontline roles, which include positions such as police officers, firefighters and teachers, grew by 4.02 percent.

Frontline and Frontline support roles, which consist of jobs such as security officers, policy analysts, general clerks and gardeners, climbed 7.56 percent.

In general, the company roles are about a tenth of FTE Public Service jobs.

Health workers form the majority of FTEs – accounting for 42.36 percent of public service, followed by educational workers who are 30.16 percent.

Police jobs are rising, tafe roles are falling

The report says that the number of FTE police roles has risen by 3.26 percent in the 12 months to March after drops in the previous two years.

It attributes growth to a “significant recruitment drive”.

There was also an increase of 6.04 percent in FTE nurses and midwives, a jump of 8.42 percent in doctors and an increase of 5.19 percent in ambulance officers.

The functions of the FTE teacher increased by 0.23 percent and employees of the safety of children checked by 0.68 percent, while the number of correction staff grew by 13.88 percent.

The number of FTE Tafe teachers and teachers fell by more than 2 percent. That also did the number of handicaps for the disabled.

The report notes that the TAFE staff is designed to “expand and contract” to meet the demand for qualifications and skills.

The reporting period between March last year and March of this year comprises approximately the last six months of the former Labor Government and the first six months of the new LNP government.