Australia’s highest paid executives have been revealed in a new report which also found the number of CEOs receiving “golden parachute” termination payments has declined significantly.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI)’s 24th annual survey of CEO pay among ASX200 companies – a benchmark longitudinal study into remuneration trends and outcomes – was released last week.

The report reveals that the highest paid CEOs of Australian tech companies are not actually based in Australia.

According to the figures, Mick Farrell, the CEO of medtech giant ResMed, is the highest paid tech executive among the ASX200, receiving $20.052 million in realised pay in the last financial year.

The analysis calculated ‘realised pay’ as reported pay excluding share-based payment expenses but including the value of any equity that was vested during the financial year.

Farrell has served as CEO of the global sleep apnoea technology business since March 2013, and was also appointed as chair of its board of directors in early 2023.

ResMed is listed on the ASX and has a market capitalisation of more than $57 billion, but Farrell is based in the company’s headquarters in San Diego, California.

Also featuring in the top 20 highest paid executives are Computershare CEO Stuart Irving, who landed $11.44 million in realised pay, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia boss Matt Comyn, who was paid $9 million.

In terms of reported pay, the CEO of another medtech company, CSL’s Paul McKenzie is among the highest paid tech bosses in the country, landing $12.5 million in the last year.

In contrast, Jack Dorsey was the lowest paid CEO of an ASX200 company in the last financial year, receiving just $4.25 ($US2.75) for his work leading Block, previously known as Square.

In contrast, Atlassian co-CEOs Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes each received a salary of about $55,000 in 2024. Cannon-Brookes has an estimated net worth of $10.5 billion.

Richard White, the former CEO and now-chief innovation officer at WiseTech Global, has a salary of $1 million annually.

The exact salary of Canva CEO Melanie Perkins is not known as the design company is not publicly listed.

Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake is the only woman to be in the top 20 highest paid CEOs.

According to the data, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson was the highest paid CEO in the last financial year after he received a realised wage of nearly $42 million.

The figures show that the highest paid CEOs earned 55 times more than the average Australian worker.

The median realised pay for CEOs across the ASX100 was $4.15 million, up slightly from $3.96 million a decade ago, the report found.

‘Golden parachutes’ on the decline

The ACSI report also revealed that termination payments to high-paying CEOs in Australia have declined significantly.

These so-called “golden parachutes” were previously rife across large organisations.

The amount of these payments dished out to CEOs in the last financial year was the lowest in 15 years, at $8.38 million, down from $33.52 million in 2010.

According to the report, this was due to a lower number of terminations of CEOs, and also a drop in the average payout to these executives from $1.97 million to $1.4 million.

The drop in termination payouts was first driven by law reforms made to the Corporations Act following the Global Financial Crisis of 2009.

Workers’ wages

Tech workers in general are also enjoying high wages, driven by strong demand for particular skills with emerging technologies.

An analysis of Indeed listings conducted by IT course provider Dynamic Web Training recently revealed that Azure and AWS architects are among the highest paid tech workers, receiving an average of more than $150,000 annually.

The report found that platform engineers and Linux engineers are making just under $140,000 and $132,000 respectively, while those at a managerial level in tech infrastructure are landing $231,000 on average annually.

The other top paying tech roles are data engineer and solutions engineer, according to the report.

Another study from earlier this year found that tech workers are the highest paid in the country, and earn $20 more per hour than the average employee.

It found that the median hourly rate for all workers in the sector is now $63.50, far above the overall hourly wage for all workers, which is at $42.20.