NZ's top pay packet revealed: $4.1m 30 Sep 2014
With a total pay package worth $4.1 million, ANZ New Zealand's David Hisco is the top-paid boss in the Business Herald's executive pay survey.
His remuneration for the 2013 financial year was a 14 per cent increase on the $3.6 million he received in 2012.
Originally from South Australia, Hisco has worked for ANZ for more than three decades and took the top job at the bank's New Zealand arm in September 2010. He guided the ANZ's New Zealand profit to $1.37 billion in 2013 - up 4 per cent.
His first role with the Australasian lender reportedly involved sweeping the carpark at his local branch in Edwardstown, near Adelaide.
The executive pay survey canvassed chief executive remuneration disclosures in the 2013 annual reports of New Zealand's largest publicly listed companies and state-owned enterprises, as well as dairy co-operative Fonterra. Today we reveal the top five highest paid bosses, while the full survey will be published in Friday's The Business.
Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings is in the No2 spot with his $3.5 million package, which was 16 per cent higher than the $3 million he received in 2012.
Fletcher Building boss Mark Adamson is in third place on $3.3 million, followed by former Westpac New Zealand chief executive Peter Clare, who received a 6 per cent pay cut to $3.1 million in the 2013 financial year.
Clare resigned from the bank last month to recover from heart surgery.
Adamson's salary could not be compared with the previous year as he only took the helm at the building materials and construction company in late 2012.
But he received a 37 per cent larger pay cheque in 2013 than the $2.4 million salary his predecessor, Jonathan Ling, was paid in 2012.
SkyCity Entertainment chief executive Nigel Morrison was in fifth place, with total remuneration of $2.98 million, up slightly on the $2.82 million he received in 2012.
SkyCity Entertainment chief executive Nigel Morrison. Photo / Richard Robinson
Spark chief executive Simon Moutter was in sixth place with a $2.94 million package in 2013.
As a group, the top five highest paid chief executives in the latest survey received $17.2 million.
When the Business Herald conducted its first executive pay survey in 2005 just six New Zealand chief executives broke the $1 million threshold.
In this year's survey 29 CEOs received $1 million or more.
Robert Reid, general secretary of the First Union, said there was growing antagonism among the public towards executive salaries, which many people viewed as excessive.
The pay survey comes as union members at ANZ mull industrial action over a bank proposal to place some workers on more flexible contracts. Reid, whose union represents ANZ staff, said many workers at the bank would find Hisco's remuneration difficult to comprehend.
"That kind of pay is just beyond belief for both people that work for those organisations and also for the general public," Reid said. "No one person can be worth that amount of money."
Hisco earned more than $11,000 a day over the course of the 2013 financial year, meaning he would have earned in one week what Kiwis on an average salary took roughly a year to earn.
An ANZ spokesman said Hisco was the bank's global head of commercial in addition to being chief executive of its New Zealand arm.
"His salary is determined by the board, with around two-thirds being variable depending on performance against targets," he said. "His current salary reflects the strong performance of the New Zealand business, increasing our market share and strengthening the ANZ brand."
The spokesman said the salary ranges for almost all jobs covered by ANZ's collective employment agreement, which the bank is currently negotiating with union staff, are the highest in the industry.
"At ANZ we value all our people and pay them competitively compared to similar jobs in the market," he said.
Mark Ashcroft, of Auckland-based executive recruitment firm Seqel Partners, said New Zealand companies competed in a global market for chief executives and had to pay top rates to secure the right talent.
"The [remuneration] numbers seem really high to those further down in an organisation - frankly they seem high to everyone - but that's the reality of the market."
- NZ Herald
Read more by Christopher Adams
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