Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
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COVID-19 response helped drive record growth in federal personnel spending

Ottawa (Ontario), April 4, 2023

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) today released new data in an interactive online tool for analyzing federal government personnel spending, publishing his key findings in a complementary report.

The PBO’s latest analysis finds that the federal government’s spending on a cash basis on salaries, pensions and other employee compensation rose from $46.3 billion in fiscal year 2019-20 to $60.7 billion in fiscal year 2021-22, an increase of 30.9 per cent.

“Even after excluding one-time expenditures, growth in personnel spending from 2019-20 to 2021-22 exceeded its pre-pandemic historical average,” says Yves Giroux, PBO. “This increase is due both to an expansion in the size of the public service and to higher compensation per full-time equivalent (FTE).”

Over fiscal years 2020-21 and 2021-22, the public service expanded by 31,227 full-time equivalents (FTEs), and their total compensation increased by 6.6 per cent. While increases in salaries were the largest contributor in total, spending on pensions, overtime and bonuses grew at a faster rate.

At present, 26 of 28 bargaining groups across the public service are in the process of negotiating collective agreements. The report highlights the current round of collective bargaining could further increase overall costs.

The Personnel Expenditure Analysis Tool (PEAT) is an interactive tool that allows for the comparison of personnel trends across time for the overall government, as well as for individual departments.

The complementary report, Personnel Expenditure Analysis — Update summarizes a few of the key insights gained through the tool.

The tool can be found by visiting our website.

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    {"id":"RP-2324-002-S","is_published":"2023-04-04T12:57:10.000000Z","release_date":"2023-04-04T13:00:00.000000Z","title_en":"Personnel Expenditure Analysis \u2014 Update","title_fr":"Examen des d\u00e9penses en personnel \u2014 Mise \u00e0 jour","internal_id":"RP-2324-002-S","metadata":{"abstract_en":"This report provides an analysis of the Government\u2019s spending on personnel over 2020-21 to 2021-22. The report highlights some key findings that were generated from the Personnel Expenditure Analysis Tool, PBO\u2019s interactive online tool.","abstract_fr":"Le pr\u00e9sent rapport offre une analyse des d\u00e9penses en personnel du gouvernement de 2020-2021 \u00e0 2021-2022. Des constatations cl\u00e9s \u00e9tablies \u00e0 l\u2019aide de l\u2019Outil d\u2019examen des d\u00e9penses en personnel, outil interactif en ligne du DPB, y sont mises en \u00e9vidence.","highlights":[{"content":{"en":"Largely driven by one-time expenditures, such as spending related to actuarial deficiencies, personnel spending grew significantly over the past two years, increasing by 30.9 per cent from $46.3 billion in 2019-20 to $60.7 billion in 2021-22. This represents average annual growth of 14.4 per cent, well above the historical average growth of 3.4 per cent per year observed over 2007-08 to 2019-20.","fr":"En grande partie \u00e0 cause de d\u00e9penses ponctuelles, comme celles li\u00e9es \u00e0 des insuffisances actuarielles, les d\u00e9penses en personnel ont beaucoup augment\u00e9 au cours des deux derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es, soit de 30,9 %, pour passer de 46,3 milliards de dollars en 2019-2020 \u00e0 60,7 milliards de dollars en 2021-2022. Cette augmentation repr\u00e9sente une croissance annuelle moyenne de 14,4 %, ce qui est nettement sup\u00e9rieur \u00e0 la croissance moyenne historique de 3,4 % par an enregistr\u00e9e de 2007-2008 \u00e0 2019-2020."}},{"content":{"en":"The public service expanded by 31,227 full-time equivalents over the past two years, an increase of 8.2 per cent relative to its pre-pandemic level in 2019-20. According to Departmental Results Reports, much of this expansion was prompted by the pandemic.","fr":"L\u2019effectif de la fonction publique a augment\u00e9 de 31 227 \u00e9quivalents temps plein au cours des deux derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es, soit de 8,2 % par rapport \u00e0 2019-2020, avant la pand\u00e9mie. Selon les rapports sur les r\u00e9sultats minist\u00e9riels, cette augmentation tient en grande partie \u00e0 la pand\u00e9mie."}},{"content":{"en":"Excluding one-time expenditures, compensation per full-time equivalent increased from an average of $117,497 in 2019-20 to $125,300 in 2021-22, an increase of 6.6 per cent. While increases in salaries were the largest contributor, spending on pensions, overtime and bonuses grew faster.","fr":"Exception faite des d\u00e9penses ponctuelles, la r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration par \u00e9quivalent temps plein est pass\u00e9e d\u2019une moyenne de 117 497 $ en 2019-2020 \u00e0 125 300 $ en 2021-2022, soit une augmentation de 6,6 %. Si les augmentations salariales sont le principal facteur de cette hausse, les d\u00e9penses li\u00e9es aux pensions, aux heures suppl\u00e9mentaires et aux primes ont augment\u00e9 plus rapidement."}},{"content":{"en":"Informed by current negotiations, we consider a risk scenario where growth in compensation per full-time equivalent exceeds that underlying March outlook of 2.5 per cent annually, on average, over 2021 to 2023.","fr":"Compte tenu des n\u00e9gociations en cours, nous utilisons un sc\u00e9nario de risque o\u00f9 la croissance de la r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration par \u00e9quivalent temps plein est sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 la croissance de 2,5 % par ann\u00e9e en moyenne de 2021 \u00e0 2023 utilis\u00e9e dans nos perspectives \u00e9conomiques de mars."}},{"content":{"en":"Based on an assumed 4.5 per cent annual increase in compensation per full-time equivalent over 2021 to 2023, then growing in line with inflation thereafter, we estimate the cost to the Government would be $19.7 billion over 2023-2024 to 2027-28. This estimate, however, should be viewed as an upper bound since the increase is assumed to apply to the entire public service.","fr":"En partant de l\u2019hypoth\u00e8se d\u2019une augmentation annuelle de 4,5 % de la r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration par \u00e9quivalent temps plein de 2021 \u00e0 2023, et en augmentant ensuite la r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration en fonction de l\u2019inflation, nous estimons que le co\u00fbt pour le gouvernement serait de 19,7 milliards de dollars sur la p\u00e9riode allant de 2023-2024 \u00e0 2027-2028. Cette estimation doit toutefois \u00eatre consid\u00e9r\u00e9e comme une limite sup\u00e9rieure, car il est suppos\u00e9 que l\u2019augmentation s\u2019applique \u00e0 l\u2019ensemble de la fonction publique."}}]},"updated_at":"2023-04-05T16:17:03.000000Z","type":"RP","slug":"RP-2324-002-S--personnel-expenditure-analysis-update--examen-depenses-personnel-mise-jour","permalinks":{"en":{"website":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/en\/publications\/RP-2324-002-S--personnel-expenditure-analysis-update--examen-depenses-personnel-mise-jour","preview":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/en\/publications\/RP-2324-002-S--personnel-expenditure-analysis-update--examen-depenses-personnel-mise-jour"},"fr":{"website":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/fr\/publications\/RP-2324-002-S--personnel-expenditure-analysis-update--examen-depenses-personnel-mise-jour","preview":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/fr\/publications\/RP-2324-002-S--personnel-expenditure-analysis-update--examen-depenses-personnel-mise-jour"}},"artifacts":{"main":{"en":{"public":"https:\/\/distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca\/b6aaf0274b613d1d86debb6e038f8794194733225f5dc2b4bc99f712c6c6f343"},"fr":{"public":"https:\/\/distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca\/66a1e1ee7e0d2aebb0bc931432389f0e443ff9f4de1d40fc7f9f1f4db09d84bb"}}},"coverpages":{"distribution":{"fr":{"small":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/b31cd95edab81380aa05c60b39b2f1fc5dfacd805d0e453ff78a9c927454f536","large":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/c4f354aff93aa9003888f4c5b73b22f2686919459870a107f8d12c88981b21d1","h150_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/d783e6f6e171246d26d5cb6e7698a6007c274d56d418a5600fc0fe5682ada7be","h150_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/fdcd3d78917fd68909ab489d614583656b93f7057ab0b3b2b93c79b6e2fb0a18","h300_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/3f4e3745116dfd28eb05e5f87db71c25f5cc42b8960322778a1c86162f69ca87","h300_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/2359d88f9c83f0d0de025a441e8cbe7d553c6b99245474823d5c151f8afda13f","h600_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/76f6a6d886d1e22b7792591aa5b19dc9e6ed11787daa8c71161f5052d462a36c","h600_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/e32eb1b9aef46cce31889d81a3f29509cd4a4b8c4aa26d6b14043ee1baf77a4a"},"en":{"small":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/26e3805d562b2672070d5280c3606bd05ab011db98c01b0c844be93fd1161889","large":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/cc6cd149f49333ca3f8e1bbd185ee379bd2b1aa4c8552618f91ec90394170809","h150_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/ba77ff557161d1928aac6bf2ec8f4c0e57f1bc466123acc0bb3093f15bf66e4b","h150_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/3d867ca77adfa2e1ba8af8182cf3b6253e7a5dbb59ac061d95ae3cc35b1f6bcd","h300_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/025e46cb10e09a7a09a27f09a7f59555b94c850abc6e8563061f3c268c401d41","h300_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/28879b4f95cee9aa930f47ebc24b96591a9ee0162afa5621db4e2cb72894132e","h600_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/b8a3274450419e91833298b3e647eb53ca02da5603ff0fd35a8a72be4b93cac4","h600_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/a6941a30ea776c5d69b8ca9d8cd0a3e7a9f47f79c518423954a4191d80962f7c"}}},"bills":[],"bibtex":{"en":"@techreport{PBO-RP2324002S,\n author={Creighton, Mark},\n title={Personnel Expenditure Analysis \\textemdash Update},\n institution={The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer},\n year=2023,\n \n address = \u0022Ottawa, ON\u0022\n}","fr":"@techreport{DPB-RP2324002S,\n author={Creighton, Mark},\n title={Examen des d\\\u0027{e}penses en personnel \\textemdash Mise \\`{a} jour},\n institution={Bureau du directeur parlementaire du budget},\n year=2023,\n \n address = \u0022Ottawa, ON\u0022\n}"}}