The recently released 2013 Directors’ Fees Report, published by dsd Consulting Ltd (dsd) in conjunction with the Institute of Directors in New Zealand (IoD) highlights a sense of cautiousness in the New Zealand market in regard to Director remuneration. The median fee for a non-executive director remained at NZ$36,000 (static against the 2012 survey median) whilst the median fee for a non-executive chair increased only slightly (2.4%) to NZ$50,000.

The results reflect a conservative approach that mirrors remuneration for employees. There is a trend towards relatively small budgets for remuneration increases, in the order of 3% per annum and a move to managing remuneration spend through focusing on rewarding high-performing employees.

The relationship remains between the type of organisation and director remuneration remains unchanged. For example, the average fee for a private company director is 2.5 times that of a not-for-profit director. This has particular implications for the average remuneration for women directors, who are highly represented on not-for-profit boards (42%) and under-represented on private company boards (13%). This directly contributes to the difference between the median director remuneration for women and men (NZ$25,000 vs. NZ$38,000).

A trend of note within the New Zealand market is the increasing number of international board appointments, in particular within larger organisations. In addition, as the government pursues a policy of partial privatisation within key State-owned enterprises, there have been significant changes to the fees paid to directors on these boards. This has been coupled with changes to the composition of the boards, with new board appointments a feature of most of the boards of these organisations over the past 12 months.

A summary of the results and more details about the survey can be found HERE.

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