This report is ACSI’s 18th annual survey of CEO pay in Australia’s largest listed companies and highlights that it is very rare for ASX100 CEOs to miss out on annual bonuses (or short-term incentives) with over half of ASX100 CEOs receiving at least 70 per cent of their maximum entitlement.

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Key findings:

BONUSES – ENTITLEMENT OR REWARD?

• Only one eligible ASX100 CEO did not receive an FY18 bonus – a record low. In FY17, there were six ASX100 CEOs in this category.
• The median ASX100 CEO received 70 per cent of their maximum annual bonus – a figure almost unchanged in four years. Only seven per cent of ASX100 CEOs received less than 30 per cent of maximum.
• The median bonus awarded to an ASX100 CEO in FY18 was $1.61m, the second highest in the history of this report and down nine per cent on the record median in FY17.
• Continued trend towards equity over cash – the median cash bonus fell 16.5 per cent for ASX100 CEOs to $927,159, showing the increasing trend to bonus deferral in large ASX listed entities.

REALISED REMUNERATION – TEN OVER $10 MILLION

• Median ASX100 CEO realised pay rose to $4.5m – realised pay includes the actual value of equity that vested during the year. The ASX100 hit its second successive record for median realised pay moving from $4.36m in FY17 to $4.5m in FY18.
• Ten CEOs realised more than $10m at ASX200 companies in FY18. Average realised pay dropped to $5.66m from $6.23m. The drop was the result of the departure of several highly paid CEOs and the fact that only two CEOs realised more than $20m in FY18 – Qantas’s Alan Joyce and Macquarie’s Nicholas Moore (three were above $20m in FY17, with Domino’s Don Meij above $35m).
• Outcomes for ASX101-200 CEOs were almost reversed by comparison - median realised pay was down marginally on FY17’s record, falling 1.1 per cent to $1.73m, while the average rose 12.5 per cent to $2.54m, the highest ever recorded for the ASX101-200 cohort.
• There were three ASX101-200 CEOs who realised more than $10m in FY18 – compared to just one in FY17, with the ASX101-200 cohort topped by St Barbara’s Bob Vassie.

FIXED PAY INCREASES MINIMAL

• Minimal fixed pay increases for ASX100 CEOs continued the trend of recent years. Median fixed pay for an ASX100 CEO was up one per cent to $1.79m in FY18, having increased by an average of just 0.2 per cent per annum over the prior decade.
• Average fixed pay for an ASX100 CEO fell 1.3 per cent from $1.91m to $1.88m, largely due to Westfield Corporation’s co-CEOs no longer being included in the sample following the group’s acquisition in 2018. Average ASX100 CEO fixed pay has fallen 0.3 per cent per annum on average since FY08.
• Among the ASX101-200 CEO cohort, the average and the median fixed pay both fell – the median declined almost two per cent to $937,740 and the average fell 1.5 per cent to $1.03m. The FY18 median was still the second highest recorded in the eight years the survey has included the ASX101-200.

TERMINATION COSTS CONTINUE

• Exiting CEOs in the ASX200 cost shareholders $25.15m in FY18, down from $33.63m in FY17. This was largely due to a decline in the number of termination payments from 20 to 15. Only eight termination payments topped $1m in FY18, down from 13 in FY17.
• The highest termination payment in the FY18 sample went to former Adelaide Brighton CEO Martin Brydon at $4.43m, in addition to a $1.47m bonus for FY18 that was effectively part of his departure arrangements. There were five payments above $2m with no CEO other than Brydon receiving more than $3m.