Founded more than 20 years ago, peer-to-peer group The CEO Institute teamed up with RMIT University in Melbourne to conduct an in-depth CEO profiling study between July and September last year.

It said there was a noticeable trend towards performance-based contracts that rewarded capability over simple experience.

The survey had 369 responses from companies across all industry sectors as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including for profit and not-for-profit organisations.

Executives who have been in the top job for a relatively short time were more likely to have their packages linked to performance metrics such as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, sales growth or profit margin.

The CEO Institute national spokesman Evan Davies said the study considered more than just the top 100 companies, which reported an average package of $A4.4 million for CEOs.

“The survey reflects the important fact that 99.7% of Australian companies are small and medium enterprises, generally with turnovers well below $1 billion,” he said.

According to the survey, 38% of Australian CEOs were paid $100,000-200,000, with an additional 28% in the $200,000-300,000 range.

It also revealed no significant link between tenure and pay.

While those working in the retail sector fell below average for pay, the mining industry sat at the top, followed by transport and storage.

CEOs in the fields of cultural and recreational, property and business services or finance and insurance industries could also expect to fare better than average.

Results also showed that Australian CEOs were slightly better rewarded than their US or UK counterparts.

Davies said the institute planned to continue the survey.

“It will be updated annually so we can follow changes not just in earnings but other key demographics like age, education and gender,” he said.