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Proportion of women on boards of directors rises to over 30%

People entering a lift
Going up: The quota of women in the 100 largest listed Swiss companies now stands at 30.8%, up from 28.5% last year © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The proportion of women on the boards of the largest Swiss companies continues to grow. In addition, CEO salaries are increasingly being scrutinised.

The quota of women in the 100 largest listed Swiss companies (SPI 100) now stands at 30.8%, consulting firm Swipra said on Wednesday after analysing the 2023 annual general meeting (AGM) season. After last year’s AGM season, the figure was 28.5%.

This was also the first time that the legal requirement of at least 30% representation per gender, which will apply from 2026, had been met. The average share of women among the newly elected members of the executive bodies was 34.4%.

CEO remuneration was once again a controversial topic at the shareholders’ meetings – not only because of increasing executive compensation packages, but also because of the different development of salary levels of management and employees, Swipra said.

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However, according to the analysis, compensation at the highest level has developed differently. The total compensation of CEOs in office for the entire year at the 20 blue-chip SMI companies rose by an average of 13.5% to CHF8.62 million ($9.6 million), while it fell by 13.3% to CHF1.60 million at the other 80 companies, it said. The average bonus payments of CEOs in relation to base salary – often a good indicator of target achievement levels – were a fifth lower in 2023 than in 2022, it added.

The reason for the increase in the compensation of SMI CEOs was often a higher allocation of share-based long-term compensation elements, which was viewed critically by institutional investors overall. According to Swipra, the average percentage of no votes on CEO compensation at SMI companies rose from 16.9% to 28.6%.

For its analysis, Swipra analysed the results of all AGMs of SPI 100 companies that took place between July 1, 2022, and June 14, 2023.

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