Among the top 100 companies whose financial years ended between January and October 2009, CEO reward levels reflected a decline from 2008 and a significant decline from the peak of the 2007 calendar year.

During the twentieth century, Australia achieved a reputation globally for embracing new developments in employment law and management. This included support for the employees holding shares in their employer company. As modern commercial law gets more complex, it appears that governments are finding it more difficult to sustain support in this area.

The potential implications of the changes made to the requirements for approval of certain termination payments are complex. A wider range of executives are affected by the requirements, the definition of termination payments has changed considerably and the top limit of payments exempt from the requirements has been reduced to the equivalent of the last year’s fixed pay.

Egan Associates have over the last twenty years since the Corporation Law required comprehensive disclosure, compiled research data on non-executive directors’ emoluments, board demographics and related information.