Mercer: Pay Going Up For Harried Directors

Directors are facing more responsibilities and their pay is doing up.

A study by Mercer shows that pay increased by 4.2 percent for the firm's top 50 firms in 2007. Another study by Steven Hall & Partners showed that between 2004 and 2007, director pay had risen 22 percent, according to directorship.com.
The pay hikes are caused by boards' busier work schedules. Over the past several years, directors have had to wrestle with complicated compliance issues brought on by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and they have had to follow new guidelines by federal regulators on executive compensation disclosure.

The heavier work load means that fewer directors are serving on fewer boards simultaneously. The two busiest committees on boards are audit and compensation.

Naturally, their pay has gone up. Mercer found that of its top 50 firms, directors averaged $236,147. Not bad, but consider that the job is becoming a lot less part time.