As your pay falls, CEOs make like bandits

By Leith van Onselen

I have always found it irritating when interest groups like the Business Council of Australia complain about Australia’s uncompetitive wages and the need to cut penalty rates or the minimum wage, as well as slash company taxes, but conveniently refuse to address the egregious blow-out in CEO and senior management pay.

At a time when real employee compensation is falling, despite rising labour productivity, average CEO pay packets in the top 100 companies has surpassed $5 million, according to recent research from The Australia Institute:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.