Departing KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn received an $80,000 pay bump during a year his company lost almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
KiwiRail's annual report shows the struggling state-owned rail company's chief executive received between $890,000-$900,000 pay in the year to June, up from $810,000-$820,000 the year before. Mr Quinn was replaced by Peter Reidy in February this year.
A KiwiRail spokeswoman said yesterday that the chief executive's base remuneration had not changed from that in 2013, but the 2014 figure was boosted by a final payment to Mr Quinn, which included all outstanding annual leave balances as well as incentive payments which had been set at the start of the year.
The spokeswoman said the chief executive's remuneration reflected the fact the company was run as a commercial entity, rather than a public-sector organisation.
"The remuneration for chief executives of other commercial operations of a similar complexity to KiwiRail are significantly higher than this."
