Macquarie Group chief Shemara Wikramanayake is Australia’s highest-paid CEO in 2022 for the second year in a row on $23.7 million, as the bosses of the 300 biggest companies enjoyed a 16 per cent pay rise to a median salary of $2.7 million.

This year’s biggest winner was Spaniard Victor Herrero, the newly installed CEO of listed fashion jeweller Lovisa Holdings, who became the country’s second highest-paid CEO among top 300 companies, earning $20.9 million for just over seven months’ work.