Why are they paid silly sums?

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Let's talk about money ... lots and lots of money.

The NZ Herald has been running an interesting series of stories this week featuring our "best-paid bosses" although "best-paid" doesn't quite capture it.

Top of the tree is chief executive of the ANZ bank David Hisco who is said to pocket $4.1 million as his basic annual salary. Next up is Fonterra head honcho Theo Spierings on $3.5 million, while a couple of others top the $3million mark before we hit the also-rans.

Apologies if this sounds like envy, but these astronomic sums raised a few questions for me, one of which was what do they do with all that dosh?

Surely they are earning it faster than they can spend it.

Does a chunk of it go on building an armour-plated shed in their backyard where they have to store all that surplus cash?

Of course, there are other questions, like how do farmers feel about Mr Spierings trousering such a tidy sum when their payout is falling?

I don't know how many cows Mr Spierings milks each year, but for a stakeholder-owned co-operative that is a very handsome pay packet.

ANZ customers might wonder whether their bank fees shouldn't be much higher to maintain Mr Hisco on his salary scale.

He can, of course, justify that sizeable wedge as ANZ made a profit of $1.37 billion last year, but bank customers might feel short-changed.

I don't know what your pay rise was last year, but Spierings netted a 17 per cent lift, and Hisco an extra 14 per cent.

The argument runs that companies have to pay these sort of figures to get the best people and to be competitive in the job market.

I don't buy it. A fat salary doesn't equate to greater business acumen, and there are plenty of people just as smart as these guys earning a comparative pittance.

Interestingly, earlier this year Warehouse boss Mark Powell described his $1.7 million salary as a ridiculous amount of money.

I couldn't agree more.