Are your NED fees in line with the market?

A Non-Executive Director or NED is a member of the board of directors but not a part of the executive team. NEDs are external or independent directors who help the company to achieve its full potential through guidance and governance.

In these strange times it is of the utmost importance for these key members of the management team to be remunerated in a competitive and appropriate manner. Our 2020 Life in the Boardroom Report (2020 LIB) focuses on the most recent trends in Chair and NEDs’ remuneration.

The 2020 Life in the Boardroom Survey is unique in the way that we collect the data from directors themselves rather than from annual reports. This year we had more than 250 individual participants who covered more than 500 board appointments.

According to our 2020 LIB report, the median number of executive directors on company boards is between two and three; and this number stays the same regardless of company size. The median number of NEDs starts at three for companies whose turnover is less than £10m and increases to eight for companies whose turnover is more than £10bn.

Non-executive directors’ fees have been increasing. AIM 100 companies have seen the highest Chair fees increase, of about two percent, while FTSE25 companies have seen the highest NED fees increase.

2020 LIB provides insights into Chair and NED fee levels and on the issues individual directors see as being the most important in 15 different sectors, with the companies broken down into eight different categories based on turnover (from less than £10m to above £10bn). The pie chart below shows the sectors with highest number of appointments.

The 2020 Life in the Boardroom Report is now available for purchase.

For more information please contact Margarita Skripina or click here.

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