Are SA executive salaries too high?

SA business owners believe
executives of large public
enterprises earn too much
money.
This was revealed in a
study by Grant Thornton’s
International Business
Report (See FTWOnline,
August 14).
About 68% of SA
business owners believed
public sector executives
were too highly paid, and
76% of their international
counterparts shared this
view, the researchers said.
But what about the
private sector salaries
themselves. How do they
compare to those in the
public sector?
Not a known factor,
according to trade
recruitment specialists,
Lee Botti & Associates and
Ribton-Turner Recruitment
– neither of which had
ever been involved in
public sector recruitment,
and therefore had no
comparative information.
Turning to an unnamed
expert on salaries, FTW
was told that ranking
public v private sector
salaries “was not a valid
comparison”.
The private sector is very
much performance-driven,
according to our source,
and bonuses are matched to
that, and tend to be rather
attractive (if you perform).
Not so the public sector.
You can’t have profit
incentives or anything like
that in the public sector,
because it is not a profitlinked
(performance)
organisation.
So those executives in
the public services may
be paid what appear to
be big basic salaries to
compensate. Their bonuses
are based on a model,
but how this is calculated
our salary specialist
didn’t know.
But the end story
is: Public sector – big
salaries and comparatively
moderate bonuses whether
you perform or not; and
private sector – modest
salaries (in executive
terms) and healthy bonuses,
but only if you deserve
them.
What’s your opinion
on the salary matter? Let
the editor know at: joyo@
nowmedia.co.za