Chief executives of Australia's 100 largest companies saw their base salary increase by 6.2 per cent to $1.95 million over the 2008 financial year.
The percentage rate of increase was higher than in 2007 when base salaries increased by 2.1 per cent, an Australian Council of Super Investors (ACSI) study, conducted by RiskMetrics, found.
Chief executives' cash bonus fell from $2.18 million to $1.95 million.
Despite this reduction, ACSI said the height of the 2008 bonuses did not reflect the events over the past financial year.
"The fact that more than 90 per cent of CEOs received a bonus in 2008 begs the question just how boards decide whether or not to pay bonuses," ACSI chief executive Ann Byrne said. "It appears easier for a CEO to get fired than to receive no bonus."
Average total pay, including the disclosed value of share-based payments, fell from $5.53 million to $5.15 million.
But ACSI argued that most of the decline in the average was driven by highly-paid CEOs in the 2007 survey having left their companies.
Companies freezing executive salaries and reducing bonuses were doing so from very high levels of existing remuneration, Byrne said.
