Spare a thought for Brad Banducci last week, who, just months after his disastrous walkout during an ABC Four Corners interview, has returned to the national spotlight for more highly-publicised criticism.

Appearing at the Senate inquiry into supermarkets this week, the outgoing Woolworths CEO faced a heated exchange with Greens senator Nick McKim, who at one point was so frustrated by his unwillingness to answer a question, he told Banducci, “I’m not interested in your spin or your bullshit. This is a Senate inquiry; answer the question.”

While its logical a position such as CEO deserves higher pay than other roles, the disparity is getting harder to stomach.Credit: Dionne Gain.

The scene was eerily reminiscent of Alan Joyce’s appearance at a Senate inquiry last year, where the former Qantas CEO defended the company’s bumper profits despite complaints against the airline being at an all-time high and being embroiled in a High Court decision that ultimately declared workers had been illegally sacked, the settlement for which is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In both instances, footage of Banducci and Joyce’s appearances went viral, with the most common question on social media being, how the hell did these people become CEOs?

To understand, or at least to help answer that, it’s worth looking at one of the most useful metrics for analysing an executive’s performance – their take-home pay.

While Banducci’s public performance may leave much to be desired, his results behind the scenes speak for themselves. Despite having a base annual salary of $2.6 million, Banducci told McKim and the inquiry that his take-home pay in 2023 was $8.4 million thanks to short-term and long-term bonuses.

According to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors annual CEO pay report, in the 2022 financial year, Banducci’s realised pay, which includes base salary, cash bonuses, stock options and investing of previously restricted stock units, was $10,640,763, making him the 11th highest-paid CEO in Australia.

That someone could enjoy bonuses of $5.8 million and $8.04 million in just two years says a lot about how valuable the Woolworths board believes Banducci to be to the success of their company, even if his public-facing responsibilities could be said to be somewhat lacking.