Rise of 13% in cost of public servants' salaries

All up, 1247 public servants are earning more than $200,000 a year, that is a 5 per cent rise on the previous year. Photo / File

By: RNZ

Taxpayers have stumped up an extra $550 million to pay public-sector employees in the past year.

That was a 13 per cent rise in just one year.

In the last financial year a further 62 public service staff were paid salaries of more than $200,000, representing a 5 per cent increase.

Altogether, 1247 staff now earn above that amount.

Over the past decade the total cost of salaries in the public sector has gone up by 69 per cent, to $4.84 billion.

The average salary is now $84,500, up 4 per cent on the year before.

The job category that cost the most was management.

However, the number of people earning $400,000 a year almost halved - from 30 to 16.