The research found fixed pay and total realised pay, defined as fixed pay and bonuses, for ASX100 CEOs has been largely flat in the past decade, with median realised pay for ASX100 CEOs was $4.15 million compared to $3.96 million in FY14.
Coming after Thomson was Victor Herrero, former CEO of Lovisa Holdings, which is not in the ASX100 cohort, who had a realised pay of $39.5 million in 2024.
The ACSI noted that this is the first time since Andrew Barkla, former CEO of IDP Education, that a CEO from outside the ASX100 topped the realised pay tables.
“Herrero’s realised pay for FY24 was higher than the realised pay of the next five highest paid ASX101-200 CEOs for FY24 combined and arose under the headline-grabbing incentive arrangement he was offered by Lovisa on joining the company in October 2021,” it added.
After Herrero is Shemara Wikramanayake, CEO of Macquarie Group, who ranked third with a realised pay of $29.7 million in the past year.