Women CEOs in New Zealand earn an average salary of $5.9 million, twice that of their male counterparts

New Zealand is showing the way for women participation in executive roles, as well as compensation, at a time when the rest of the world suffers from dismal female representation in leadership positions.

Women CEOs in New Zealand earned an average salary of $5.9 million, more than twice their male counterparts, who had an average pay of $2.6 million.

This Pacific Island nation had the strongest board representation with more than 40% of female CEOs, according to MSCI's latest report.

This is in sharp contrast to just 6.5% CEO positions held by women — a slight rise from 5.8% in 2022 — the MSCI ACWI index of 2,868 large- and mid-cap companies from developed as well emerging markets showed. Women held 19% of CFO roles.  

Developed nations too lag on female representation in top jobs. Countries such as Switzerland (2.2%), Netherlands (3.2%) and Germany (3.6%), among others, had less than 5% of women CEOs, with those in in Switzerland earning more than four times less than their male counterparts. 

In Asia, Japan (1.1%), South Korea (3.2%) and Hong Kong (4.8%) have less than 5% of women CEOs, though in South Korea they earn more than their male counterparts, according to the MSCI report.  

Healthcare and consumer discretionary companies had the most women CEOs at 10.4%, while their CFO count stood at nearly 20%, the MSCI ACWI index showed. 

Board seats held by women in 2023 rose to 25.8% from 24.5% in the year prior, according to MSCI ACWI data.

While the uptick is a good sign, experts suggest a lot more needs to be done so women have stable tenures on the board.

"There's a big gap between what happens once women get to the board, and the average timespan that women spend on any board is about three and a half years," said Chitra Hepburn, MSCI's Asia-Pacific head of ESG and climate. 

The number of companies in the healthcare space that had fully male boards fell to 5.4% in 2023 from 6.8% in 2022. 

Of the 11 sectors tracked by MSCI, information technology sector had  the largest percentage of firms with all male boards at 15%, a 0.8% rise from 2022, followed by the materials industry at 14%. 

Real estate saw the most impactful decline in fully male boards: to 8.6% in 2023 from 14.8% in 2022.  

"It's one thing to tick the box and bring them in on the board, but it's a whole different thing. If you want to change the culture of the board of your company and make inclusion more of the issue rather than just diversity for diversity's sake," Hepburn told CNBC. 

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