Good on them for getting into the position to control their own destiny.

Many wish they could, and because they cant they like to be preoccupied with pulling the big guys down.

They are the most important members of their team. You pay peanuts you get monkeys.

I hope it continues, if you dont like it i suggest you ignore it.

Hi John,

This is a particularly enlightening article. Well researched and well presented...nice to see the hypocrisy in one of our least effectively performing sectors exposed for what it is.

What is good for the goose is clearly NOT good in their eyes for the gander.

It is interesting to note the information you have presented here in relation to an article presented in the Australian newspaper some time ago that stated that the failure rate for Corporate executives in Australia was a whopping 29%...how uncompetitive is that?

They need a strong dose of their own medicine and fast!

National Competition Policy and deregulation of all else Australian - Primary Industries, Banks, Airlines, Workers Rights...you name it they have demanded that every sector of middle and lower wage earners or small business be dragged down closer towards the 3rd world...but they remain in their ivory towers - grasping for more and more of the available pie. Where is their justification?

The real agenda is clear when Macquarie Bank announced the next step of the agenda...they will buy out cotton farmers in NSW and lease them back to the farmers. With Macquarie Banks record this is the Corporate equivalent of Communist China or Russia's implementation of property takeover after WW2 in East Germany.

Australians must relinquish their land to the "State" - or in this case the Corporates have taken the place of the "State"...wake up Australia!

Let's see these guys accepting the CEO wage packages of these 'competitor' nations...like Brazil who is exporting over $70 Million to us more than we export to them...clearly a reasonable request considering their own demands.

Keep up the great work John!

If the market is prepared to pay these amounts I don't have too many problems here. However, what is particularly galling is when our treasurer confidently tells us all with his characteristic grin that real wages have grown by 14 percent during his tenure without spelling out the fact that these figures include the massive growth in earnings of the top few percent. Highlight this fact and the earnings growth of the majority is far more ordinary.

My chosen name describes them all.

Nice article John.

Nice piece. We need to be reminded of these facts every now and then, even though there is very little that anyone can do about it.

Their situation is highly analogous to politicians, who traditionally have awarded themselves pay and perks above and beyond that which any normal worker can aspire to. It would be interesting to see a similar study made of this group - not just their base salaries, but all the expenses, allowances and perks of office (quick trip to the UK? Is it Wimbledon? OK then) that they acquire along the way.

They continue to be rewarded even after they are fired by their disillusioned constituents or retire in office. Their superannuation entitlements are staggering, and a bunch of them get free travel - even international flights - for the rest of their natural.

Doesn't seem to be much to pick between the two lots really. You can be an utter disaster as the leader of a political party and still walk away with enough in your kick not to have to work ever again. Just as you can be an utter disaster as a CEO and live comfortably on your “entitlements”.

The reason is pretty straightforward in both cases. They each have the power to award themselves monetary and other rewards without sufficient checks and balances. Shareholder activity is increasingly managed by pension funds, whose approach is "don't rock the boat, you never know when you'll be in that position". You have to stand together, after all.

On the political front, the various pre-selection routines ensure that we, the voters, remain unrepresented by the politician that we send off to parliament.

The factions, who are after all in the patronage business pure and simple, ensure that one of their own is put in front of us, depriving us of the opportunity to elect (don't laugh) an honest politician.

Is there anything we can do about it? Not really. But as Realist would say, you can always become one of them if you want to.

If you want to sell your soul, that is.

Realist,

You pay peanuts , you get monkeys - You pay big bucks , you get gorillas, big ugly greedy gorillas!