It’s difficult to put a price tag on Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ roundtable, but the three-day affair has pulled some of the nation’s top-paid executives and public servants away from their regular jobs.

While the government did not pay anyone to attend the roundtable, an analysis of a dozen publicly disclosed salaries suggests that companies – and in some cases, taxpayers – are footing a significant bill for their appearance.

We know the salaries of 12 of the more than 40 high-powered Australians who surrendered their phones and diaries to sit at the oval (not round) cabinet room table, but collectively, their time over the three days was worth more than $142,000.

Bran Black, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, insisted it was time well spent. “I think the positive thing about the conversation we’ve just had is that there are some points of agreement right around the room,” he said in an interview on ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday, saying it was the best way to come to a consensus.

But others are wondering if the time spent talking about productivity was ... productive.

“Despite some positive calls for change, reports coming out of the roundtable have been vague and largely aspirational,” Tom Forrest, the CEO of property development association Urban Taskforce Australia, said in a statement released on the final day.

Chalmers, who is on a base salary of nearly $450,000, said before the roundtable that the invite list would be “pretty small, pretty tight and targeted.”

Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake, for example, who set aside a day to appear at the economic reform roundtable on Tuesday, is paid more than $24 million a year – or roughly $65,800 a day for helming the multinational company.

That’s down slightly from the $25.3 million she took home a year earlier.

Wikramanayake, the third-highest paid boss of an ASX-listed company, is not the only high-powered executive who appeared at the roundtable.

Matt Comyn, chief executive of Commonwealth Bank, attended all three days of the roundtable. With a salary of nearly $2.9 million, Comyn’s three-day appearance is worth about $22,000 based on his position as the boss of the country’s biggest bank.

Geraldine Slattery, Australia president of BHP, the second-largest ASX-listed company after Commonwealth Bank, rakes in about $1.7 million a year. Based on this salary, Slattery’s one-day appearance is worth about $4640. She appeared in place of Mike Henry, the company’s CEO, who was invited but unable to attend.

Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar, co-founder of Atlassian and chief executive of the Tech Council of Australia, has an undisclosed salary. But his time is clearly valuable, with a net worth of about $17 billion largely made up of shares in the software company that he left as co-CEO last year.

The $4.1 trillion superannuation sector was also represented at the table.

Paul Schroder, boss of AustralianSuper, earns nearly $1.6 million, meaning his one-day visit could be valued at about $4300.

While business bosses were the top earners at the roundtable, the nation’s highest-paid public servants were also in attendance.

Steven Kennedy, secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, is the highest-paid public servant in Australia, earning more than $1 million, or about $8500 across three days.

Recently appointed Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson earns a similar salary at just over $1 million a year.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, earns nearly $880,000, while Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood earns about $690,000. With both appearing across all three days of the summit, their appearance could be valued at about $13,000.

There are also roundtable attendees whose incomes are more difficult to pinpoint.

BCA chief Black is probably earning a figure on par with Canberra’s top departmental positions, possibly eclipsing $900,000, according to a report by the Financial Review in 2023.

While the salaries of elected officials at the Australian Council of Trade Unions are not disclosed, its leader, Sally McManus, said in 2020 she earned about $190,000 a year, including a car allowance. She would be on more than $200,000 a year now.

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