Sat. Nov 2nd, 2024
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While debate rages as to whether a 5.75 per cent pay rise for workers on award wages will be inflationary, a new report reveals the nation’s big business leaders received an average 15 per cent base pay rise.

The report, prepared by McGuirk Management Consultants for the Governance Institute of Australia, surveyed 1,167 boards from across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, and included 226 share market-listed companies.

Among the key findings were that chief executives of ASX-listed companies received an average 15 per cent base pay rise, while those who held the title of managing director saw a 14 per cent pay bump.

Those running one of the nation’s top 200 companies recorded an even bigger average fixed pay increase of 19 per cent.

That left the average base pay of an ASX 200 managing director, amongst those firms that responded to the survey, at $1.6 million, while the average pay of those titled CEO was just over $1.1 million.

However, more than half of listed-company managing directors and CEOs were eligible for performance bonuses, with an average maximum of 89 per cent for managing directors and 72 per cent for CEOs.

The Governance Institute’s chief executive Megan Motto said the 2023 data showed a big jump after a period of more moderate pay rises.

“These are significant increases off the back of several years of relatively small rises in fixed pay for executives,” Ms Motto said.

“With AGM season looming, boards will need to have a strong narrative around their remuneration policies to stand up to shareholder scrutiny and manage reputation risks.”

Most other execs see smaller pay jumps

The big pay rises right at the top didn’t completely translate further down the “C-suite”, with only 9 per cent of senior executives at ASX-listed companies seeing a pay rise above 10 per cent.

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