CEO salaries in Australia have increased at nearly double the national average pay rise rate, new data shows.
A new report from the Governance Institute of Australia surveyed over 1,000 company boards, including public, private, and not-for-profit organisations.
It found CEOs received an average 14% pay increase over the 12 months to June 2024.
That’s compared to an average pay increase of 5% for general staff for the same period.
Here’s what else the report found.
Average CEO salaries in Australia
The average fixed remuneration for CEOs of the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX200) was $1.37 million.
That’s up from an average of $1.14 million for the 2022/23 financial year.
Fixed remuneration includes salary but does not include variables like bonuses.
General staff
General staff received a bigger average pay rise (5%) over the past year, compared to last year’s average 3% increase.
It also sits above this year’s minimum wage increase which was 3.75%.
General staff includes employees who don’t hold senior leadership roles (e.g. board director) within a company.
The report also looked at the remuneration of CEOs at private companies and charities.
The average remuneration of a private company CEO is $364,000, down from $396,000 in the 2022/23 financial year.
However, charity CEOs’ average salary decreased over the past year. CEO remuneration for the year to June was $265,000, down slightly from $267,000.
