Looking at the pay packets of the top CEOs of the ASX 200 might be a depressing task for us mere mortals who aren't getting paid millions of dollars every year (or even every month) to run a company.
But regardless, it is still an interesting facet of the market to examine and can shed some light on how some of the ASX 200's best shares operate.
Digging through ASX releases and annual reports to find CEO and management pay figures is a monumentally boring task. But fortunately for us, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) has done all of the work for us in a new report. And it certainly makes for some interesting reading.
The 10 highest-paid ASX 200 CEOs
So this report from ACSI reveals the highest-paid CEOs on a realised-pay basis.
Here are the top ten for FY2022, the company these CEOs worked for, and exactly how much remuneration ACSI estimated they received for their efforts over FY2022:
| CEO |
ASX 200 share |
FY22 Compensation |
| Mick Farrell |
ResMed Inc (ASX: RMD) | $47.14 million |
| Greg Goodman |
Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) | $44.34 million |
| Robert Thomson |
News Corporation (ASX: NWS) | $35.13 million |
| Alex Dorsch |
Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX: CHN) | $17.88 million |
| Shemara Wikramanayake | Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) | $17.57 million |
| Paul Perreault | CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) | $17.38 million |
| Mike Henry | BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) | $16.31 million |
| Ron Delia | Amcor (ASX: AMC) | $14.23 million |
| Chris Ellison | Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) | $12.69 million |
| Jason Huljich and John McBain | Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI) | $10.73 million. |
So this list might come as something of a surprise in that ASX's biggest names aren't really here. Not one big four bank, no Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) nor Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW). BHP might be the ASX's largest company by market capitalisation. But its CEO Mike Henry is only the seventh-highest-paid CEO in the country.
The two highest-paid ASX 200 CEOs – Mick Farrell of ResMed and Greg Goodman of Goodman Group – oversee a pair of companies that are worth less than half of BHP combined.
It just goes to show the different values that companies, and their shareholders, place on the individuals that lead them.
