An Australian worker on the median wage of $55,000 (($55,063)) would have to work for 669 years to earn as much as Australia's highest-paid chief executive gets in one year.
The chief executive of Domino's Pizza Group, Don Meij, ((may)) is at the top of the list of highest-paid chief executives in a new report compiled by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.
He earned $36.8 million last year, or $142,000 a day.
That figure has even caught Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by surprise.
He has told Radio 3AW in Melbourne he cannot make sense of it.
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors is set up by industry superannuation funds to monitor the governance and ethical standards of the businesses in which super funds invest.
It has been tracking chief executives' wages for the past 17 years.
The group's own chief executive, Louise Davidson, says this year's increase of 12.4 per cent in the average pay of chief executives is the biggest growth in 17 years and the highest since the 2007 global financial crisis.
"CEO salaries have always been way above what average workers get paid, but I think that the current environment, which brings together that flat wage growth along with record levels of distrust of business by the community, I think that potentially spells trouble for business, because it's an environment such as that where you might end up with the possibility of big increases in the amount of regulation that are placed on business around the way they pay their CEOs, for example."
Bonus payments increased by more than 18 per cent, with almost one in three chief executives from the top 100 listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange receiving at least 80 per cent of their maximum bonuses.
Ms Davidson says bonuses are being awarded too readily.
"So whereas we would expect bonuses to be paid for service above and beyond your ordinary work, in this case, there were only six CEOs out of a hundred who did not get a bonus. And to that leads us to question how rigorous the targets are that are set for bonuses and, also, the extent to which boards are really scrutinising and really being tough about whether or not people are achieving those targets."
In Australia, shareholders have been given power to protest against chief executives' pay.
Under an amendment to the Corporations Act, a protest vote of 25 per cent or more at two consecutive annual general meetings against the adoption of a remuneration report can trigger a boardroom spill.
Ms Davidson says, while that is welcome, Australia might do better by using Britain's model.
"Yes, I think the two-strikes rule has been very effective at moderating the increase in executive pay, but it's not a binding rule, so, obviously, companies take it into account but they don't have to be bound by it. Whereas in the UK, for example, there is now a requirement for companies to be bound by the way shareholders vote on remuneration reports."
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus says she would like to see more steps to curb chief executives' pay.
"And that if you wanted to put in place a law, like other countries are considering, where you have a ratio of how much CEOs should be paid compared to your average worker, that would mean real change. That would be a big step forward. But that's not something that anyone's even considering at the moment."
Malcolm Turnbull says he believes it is shareholders who can, and should, act.
"Well, it is a free market, but shareholders, I think, are increasingly objecting to it. And I think you're seeing more activism. And that's the way it should go. And they've got the ability, of course, to reject the remuneration packages."
The survey organisers say they found it difficult to analyse gender-pay equality with only nine female chief executives in the 200 biggest companies.
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors says, among the 100 biggest companies, there were more chief executives called Andrew than women.
