Qantas boss Alan Joyce leads list of Australia’s top-earning CEOs

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce takes home close to $24,000,000 a year, leading the field of Australia’s highest paid CEOs. See the list of best paid executives.

Maria Bervanakis

2 min read

September 17, 2019 - 1:30PM

News Corp Australia Network

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Qantas boss Alan Joyce has topped a list of the nation’s highest paid executives, as it’s revealed all but one CEO received bonuses in the past year.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) today published the results of its annual survey of CEO pay for the 2018 financial year, which showed Mr Joyce led the field with realised pay (which includes cash and shares that vested during the year) of $23.87 million.

Nicholas Moore, former chief executive of Macquarie Group, was the next highest paid ASX100 boss ($23.85 million), followed by Treasury Wine Estates chief Michael Clarke ($19.02 million).

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce smashed the list of top earning CEOs in Australia with a $23.87 million pay packet. Picture: AAP

The report, prepared by Australian governance advisory firm Ownership Matters, found that all but one of the 76 CEOs in the ASX 100 who were eligible for a bonus received one.

Domino’s Pizza chief executive Don Meij — last year’s highest paid CEO — was the only CEO to miss out.

The median bonus awarded to an ASX100 CEO was $1.61m, the second highest in 18 years.

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.

However the report found the base pay for ASX100 CEOs fell by 1.3 per cent to $1.88 million, and had fallen 0.3 per cent a year since 2008.

Similarly Macquarie Group's former CEO Nicholas Moore made the top three of the list with $23.85 million. Picture: AAP

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ACSI CEO Louise Davidson said Royal Commission proceedings and declining public trust failed to dampen executive bonuses last year.

“The way bonuses are being handed out suggests there is a culture of entitlement whereby supposedly ‘at risk’ pay is not very risky at all.

Treasury Wine Estates CEO Michael Clarke rounded third place with earnings of $19.02 million. Picture: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

“These payments occurred in a year when the Royal Commission was in full swing, revealing evidence that executives were not being held accountable for poor conduct, and in the wake of soaring ‘first strike’ votes against remuneration reports.

“Clearly, corporate Australia is not getting the message that bonus payments should be variable and awarded for stretch performance, rather than being fixed pay under another name. This is a failure of both discipline and leadership.”

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus took to twitter to criticise those on the list.

“Does anyone honestly think one person deserves $24mil/year when staff earn a fraction of this”.

Ten highest paid ASX200 CEOs in FY18

1. Alan Joyce, Qantas Airways, $23,876,351