Research evidence describes wide differences in CEO remuneration across the world, with US CEO pay described as an outlier at 23% greater than the UK and 55% greater than continental Europe, thereby contributing to income inequality in that country.
CEO remuneration is the most controversial issue for most boards: they want to attract the best talent, and yet the remuneration benchmarks just keep on rising.
I asked whether there had been any representations to government suggesting concern over the "behind closed doors" nature of CEO salary remuneration.
Qantas said Joyce's remuneration was in the bottom 25th percentile of CEO pay in Australia from 2011 to 2014.
UK companies are also subject to a variation of the CEO pay ratio rule, requiring the disclosure of the boss's remuneration compared with employees.
His research – which covered from 2003 to 2007, just after new government regulation kicked in forcing companies to disclose details of their bosses' remuneration – found that, on average, only 38% of CEOs' earnings were received automatically, regardless of their companies' performance.
Derived from Garrison Keillor's town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average", this became the underpinning principle for CEO and top executive remuneration for the last 20 years.
