The public fury over executive remuneration that erupted at the height of the global financial crisis appears to have roused members of Australia’s most powerful boardrooms.

New research published today by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) shows that the pay packets of the nation’s top chief executives took a few hits in the last five years as company boards moved to curb the excesses of bonanza contracts and governance failures.

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ACSI’s latest review of chief executive pay found that CEOs of the top 100 companies raked in average total income of $4.84 million in the 2013 financial year.

That’s a lot of cash by any measure, but it is less than the average haul of $5.16 million that local CEOs enjoyed in 2008.

Chief executives are now earning around 63 times the gross earnings of the average Australian compared to a multiple of 94 in 2007.

The crimping of CEO pay follows more than a decade of campaigning by industry super funds, the Australian Shareholders’ Association and other shareholder activists to better align executive pay with returns to investors.

ACSI chief executive Gordon Hagart said regular engagement between investors and company directors had played a big part in reducing perverse outcomes with executive remuneration.

“ACSI observes that increased investor engagement, combined with the work of more active boards, has resulted in better remuneration packages that improve alignment between executives and the providers of capital,” he said.

“We have seen fewer votes against remuneration reports over the past year as remuneration packages have improved in the market.”

The survey found that the reduction in average remuneration in the top 100 listed companies was partly attributable to the tightening of formulas for calculating termination payments to departing chief executives.

By the mid-2000s many long-serving CEOs at the top 50 companies had come to expect termination payouts of more than $10 million.

Public criticism of soaring corporate pay turned to outrage in February 2008 when Macquarie Group revealed that its departing boss Alan Moss would walk away with a final payout of $50 million.

This announcement upset many shareholders who were worried that the debt-dependent business models introduced by Mr Moss were faltering during the financial crisis.

The Rudd Government later introduced changes to the Corporations Act that required shareholders’ approval for any termination payments that exceeded an executive’s annual pay.

Mr Hagart believes the reform has worked to benefit shareholders, with the value of termination payments having fallen 70 per cent since 2008 when 13 retiring CEOs collectively raked in $83 million.

Last year, nine departing chief executives from the top 100 listed companies walked away with aggregate payments of only $12 million.

Another legislative reform that seems to have helped to curb the excesses of the last decade is the so-called “two strikes rule” for company remuneration reports.

Under this rule, all board positions must be vacated for election if shareholders controlling more than 25 per cent of a company’s shares vote against a remuneration report in two consecutive years.

Mr Hagart said the rule had stoked better communication between boards and shareholders, and provided an incentive for directors to review their principles for determining the pay of top executives.

“The ‘two strikes’ change was very helpful,” he said.

“It gave teeth to what was previously only an advisory vote.”

The moderation of Australian executive pay is part of a global push by regulators and company directors to root out practices that have allowed CEOs to negotiate weak performance hurdles on equity-based remuneration.

Between 1995 and 2008 it was not unusual for Australian and international banks to “gift” shares to wily or charismatic chief executives even though they had failed to meet agreed performance targets.