Qantas boss tops list of high-flyers

QANTAS Airways leader Alan Joyce was Australia’s highest-paid chief executive last year, taking home $23.88 million as he reaped the rewards of a long-term incentive plan.

Mr Joyce narrowly beat Macquarie Group’s Nicholas Moore, who earned $23.86 million, according to a report conducted by Ownership Matters for the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.

Mr Joyce had been allocated millions of shares in 2014 when they were worth $1.26 each and they vested in 2018 at $5.66, the report said.

The surge helped Mr Joyce rise from eighth place on the list a year earlier, with Mr Moore rising one spot.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises boss Don Meij made $36.8 million to take top spot in 2017, but received a slimmed down $7.1 million in 2018 after becoming the only ASX100 boss to miss out on a bonus in the year.

The average realised pay for the chief executives of Australia’s top 100 public companies was $5.6 million, down 7.6 per cent as several well-paid leaders retired.

The median realised pay of ASX100 CEOs was $4.6 million, down 3.2 per cent from

2017, according to a report now in its 18th year.

None of the big four bank chief executives were among the top 10 best-paid CEOs for a second straight year.

The report included pay data for 158 chief executives of the ASX200, with some companies excluded for various reasons, including that their chief executives were new or that differences in international reporting standards would make comparisons difficult.