South African government personnel expenditure 2006–2021: Methodological considerations in using remuneration data

The level of detail, coverage, accuracy, completeness and time range of personnel expenditure data available in the transversal payroll system used by South African national and provincial government departments, PERSAL, offers opportunities for wage bill analysis that is not possible with the more common and well-known approaches of using either highly summarised tabled data, reported data or survey data. This paper describes a methodology that was developed to extract trends in the wage bill and personnel numbers. The key drivers of total wage bill growth have been identified as personnel growth and salary growth and this paper demonstrates how to disaggregate total growth into these two key drivers. The full-time equivalent is proposed as a measure for annual headcounts, as it provides an accurate summary. Appropriate stratification when analysing the impact of remuneration policies is highlighted. The structuring of payroll data as employees’ career trajectories enables the analysis of changes at the personal level, adding insight to into personnel movements and improvements in salaries.