Director pay soars

The conventional wisdom is that the job of director has gotten a lot harder since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbanes-Oxley news) in 2002. It's not really seen as a junket job the way it once was. One consequence is that pay has been increasing, and the increases appear to be likely to continue. Board members at large corporations made $216,000 last year on average, up from $129,667 in 2003. For some, total compensation, which can include stock grants and other perks, has climbed above $1 million.

Presumably, directors are working harder, to at least partially justify the pay. A decade ago, directors attended four board meetings a year on average and spent 100 hours a year on board tasks. Nowadays, they spend an average of 225 hours and attend six meetings a year, not including committee meetings, which can be tough. As always, there are some full time directors, epitomized by Edward Kangas, head of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu from 1989 to 2000, who made $1.3 million for 2008 serving on 4 boards. 

For more:
- here's the Business Week article

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