At least two industry superannuation fund chief executives are receiving total salary packages in excess of $1 million, while at least two more are receiving over $800,000.
That is the bottom line of answers to questions provided to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics which has sought to interrogate a number of superannuation funds about the salaries of their chief executives and then draw comparisons with the wages earned by the average member of their superannuation funds.
What the questioning, undertaken by the chairman of the committee, Victorian Liberal backbencher, Tim Wilson, has revealed is that among those funds that have so far responded, industry superannuation fund chief executives are paid anywhere between $588,000 and $1.1 million.
At the top of the tree is Ian Silk, the chief executive of the largest industry superannuation, AustralianSuper who is receiving a package of $1,111,234 but as high as this seems it needs to be measured against that of Hostplus chief executive, David Elia who is receiving a base package of $899,045 plus $221,979 in short-term bonuses.
Then, too, there is Aware Super (formerly First State Super) boss, Deanne Stewart who is receiving a base package of $905,000 plus a performance bonus of $125,000 and HESTA chief executive, Debbi Blakey who is receiving $915,690 and REST chief executive, Vicki Doyle whose package was valued at $826,000 made up of a base of $646,330 and an annual bonus of $158,976.
This then compares to CareSuper’s Julie Lander who received a comparatively modest package of $588,136.
None of the superannuation fund chief executive salaries have been a secret, with each of them having met their regulatory obligations by reporting them within the fund’s annual statements and with some of them directing Wilson’s attention to those statement rather than spelling out the salary amounts out in answer to his questions.
Wilson had asked each of the funds to advise the salary of their CEOs including any bonuses, and then asked that, “for each year of the past decade, please advise the:
a. annual remuneration of the average worker who contributes to your fund
b. average annual superannuation contribution from an employee to your fund
c. multiple your CEO is remunerated compared to the annual remuneration of the average worker who contributes to your fund.
