[imagesource:wikimediacommons]

The annual reports of the country’s high-flying life insurers show eye-watering executive pay packages.

In 2022, Discovery CEO Adrian Gore (looking suave up top) saw his total pay increase by more than R10 million to R28,3 million.

Holy cow, he better be making high-stakes decisions on a daily basis to justify that maddeningly good salary.

Meanwhile, Old Mutual’s CEO Iain Williamson’s total remuneration grew by R6,8 million to R22 million, while the CFO Casper Troskie’s total pay increased by R4,4 million to R13,6 million. The report shows that their total pay packages were 45% and 49% higher, respectively.

Sanlam’s 2022 remuneration report shows a decrease in total executive remuneration, with CEO Paul Hanratty’s total remuneration of R6,1 million remaining unchanged from 2021, while CFO, Abigail Mukhuba, saw her total pay lowered to R11,7 million from R12 million in 2021. Six of its 16 executives received no increase in their guaranteed annual pay.

Then, Momentum Metropolitan Holding’s (MMH) top three executives received a pay increase of 5%, with CEO Hillie Meyer’s total pay basically unchanged at R10,7 million, while his deputy, Jeanette Cilliers, earned R8,1 million, increased from R7,6 million in 2021. The group’s financial director Risto Ketola’s total pay of R8,2 million was also almost unchanged.

These numbers were reported by News24, which noted that Old Mutual’s report revealed the company as one of the first in South Africa to shed light on the gap between its highest- and lowest-paid employees:

Proposed changes to the Companies Act could eventually force all businesses to report the gap between the lowest and highest paid in a company.

…The Old Mutual figures show that in 2022, the top 5% earned an average of R2.3 million in guaranteed pay. The bottom 5% made R185 845. That means employees in the top 5% earned 12.4 times more than those in the bottom 5%.

Old Mutual says its pay gap has decreased since 2021, largely due to higher increases awarded to low-paid employees:

In 2022, the bottom 5% got an average increase of 11.75% from R166 292 per annum to R185 845, while the increase for its top 5% employees (from R2.15 million to just over R2.3 million) amounted to below 7%.

Meanwhile, Discovery’s Gore gets to take home his lovely paycheck of R28,3 million as his base pay went up by 7,9% in 2022, and the average salaries of Discovery employees increased by only 5,5%.

Reporting on this pay gap seems to have irked some Saffas, with a few defending the CEOs by saying you can’t compare the salaries of some of SA’s “best entrepreneurs” to “a common 9 to 5 worker”:

TeddyM commented: “Adrian Fore is an actuary and one of the best entrepreneurs SA has seen – how dare you compare his salary to a common 9 to 5 worker ? Most of those 9 to 5 workers jobs are in the process of being automated- we cannot automate Adrian Gore’s job”.

Teddy loves Gore, everyone.

I suspect that this report is less about knocking the CEO lifestyle – “individual [who] take 35 years to work their way to the top and the endure all the pressure of tough decisions on a daily basis, you believe that they their remuneration is excessive,” noted one commenter – and more about being transparent about fair pay.

The fact is that people of colour and women are still unfairly compensated in business, and showing the pay gap might be one way to have this much-needed conversation.

[source:news24]