14 January 2020

Killian Plastow: “The chief executives of Australia’s biggest companies have earned [sic] more money since the start of 2020 than the average worker will make all year. … And that comes despite a banking royal commission which claimed the scalps of numerous CEOs and prompted regulator APRA to consider tighter rules for pay cheques. On average, full-time workers in Australia earn $1633.80 a week, or roughly $84,950 a year. The chief executives of Australia’s largest 100 listed companies, however, received an average annual income of $5.66 million in the 2018 financial year, according to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI). … Even after tax, someone earning that much each year would take home about $58,205.83 per week — 68.5 per cent of the average worker’s pre-tax annual income. … The median Australian income — exactly between the top and bottom 50 per cent of incomes — in 2018 was only $55,063 based on numbers given to The New Daily by Treasury. The high incomes paid to ASX100 chief executives and other senior business leaders work to drag the average up, masking the larger disparity between workers and their bosses.”