Divisions Magnified

This week has seen heightened complaint and criticism of the proposed IR laws. One critical issue has been that wages, and working conditions generally,will be reduced or curtailed.

If there was one way to stick it up "the workers" the AFR Survey on CEO salaries published today shows that the top-end is doing very, very nicely. It doesn't even matter if the company isn't travelling too well, the CEO and his fellow executives are still being paid more than handsomely - sometimes even an increase on the monies paid the previous year. In the case of Centro the directors and executives are being paid a quarter of the annual profit!

Here are the raw figures as reported by AAP:

SYDNEY, Nov 16 AAP - The chief executive officers (CEOs) of Australia's biggest sharemarket listed companies have received an average 16 per cent payrise in the past year.

The average salary for the head of one of Australia's top 300 biggest sharemarket listed companies has risen from $1.6 million in 2004 to $1.9 million in 2005, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reports today.

The statistics were revealed in the AFR's seventh annual study of CEOs pay.

It found that the average total remuneration for the CEOs had also risen from $856,506 to $1.09 million.

In cash terms, they received an average of $1.5 million in salaries, benefits and bonuses, an increase of 11 per cent.

The CEOs were also paid on average a bonus of $600,000, up by 22 per cent in the past year. AFR said the increases resulted from another year of strong profits and sharemarket returns.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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