Excessive directors’ fees are a grave injustice to shareholders

Just as employees are paid their monthly salaries, directors of a company are paid annual remunerations for services rendered, and the amounts vary from company to company. A common grievance of shareholders of public-listed companies is that directors are paid unreasonably high amounts.

In some companies’ annual reports, the factors taken into account in paying executive and non-executive directors’ fees are explained and include the nature of the directors’ duties and justification with corporate performance. However, seldom are the views of other stakeholders – shareholders and employees – taken into account.