Non-executive directors’ annual pay packages increased on average just over 34% in 2005 to R342 072 from R254 744 in 2004, a study published in the Bargaining Monitor distributed at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress has established.
The document published by the Labour Research Service (LSR) carries a 2006 directors’ fees survey — commissioned by Cosatu to coincide with its ninth national congress being held at Midrand near Johannesburg.
The study found that most non-executive directors earned more depending on the number of boards they sat on. The company paying the highest average non-executive director’s salary was the global mining group, BHP Billiton, at over R1,7-million a year in 2005.
The survey, which polled 57 directors of 57 top companies in construction, food and beverage, health, chemicals, banking and financial, information and telecommunications, mining, paper, retail and transport sectors, excluded
payments made from share options.
The survey found that executive directors pay increased on average by 12% in the past year with the average salary of an executive director pegged at R4,6-million, up from R4,1-million in 2004.
The LRS lamented the wage gap between workers and companies’ top officials, saying that “workers may have received an above inflation increase but it is miniscule in rand terms — R1 784 per annum or less than R150 a month”.
The minimum wage, calculated from the LRS actual wage rate database of over 400 collective bargaining agreements and wage determinations, increased by 7,1% in 2005. An average worker in the past year earned R25 184, up from R23 500 in 2004.
The survey found that there was no link between company net profit before tax — which increased on average by 55% in 2005 — and pay rises.
The widest gap was found in the retail sector where the lowest paid worker earned R19 194 a year and the highest paid official — being the chief executive — was paid R17,8-million annually in 2005.
In the food and beverage sector, an average worker took home R27 913 in
2005 while the chief executive earned R6,2-million in the same year. – I-Net Bridge