Company secretary pay in Australia has no single honest band, because the role takes three shapes: a standalone governance executive in a listed company, a duty attached to a finance leader with no separate salary line, or an annual fee to a corporate services firm.
Three versions of the role, three different numbers
The office itself is defined by statute, under the Corporations Act 2001, but the job around it is not. I will not give you a single Australian company secretary band, because an honest one does not exist. The role spans a listed-company governance executive running board process and continuous disclosure, a finance leader who happens to hold the office, and an outsourced arrangement priced as a service fee rather than a salary. Averaging those three produces a figure that describes none of them.
What moves the number
Four things, in roughly this order. Listing status comes first, because it brings continuous disclosure, ASX listing rules and a remuneration report into scope. Then group size, since every entity carries its own filings and minutes. Third is scope: does the role own board and committee process end to end, or just the filings? Last, any legal or risk mandate sitting alongside the secretariat is common in mid-market businesses and moves the seat materially.
One thing worth naming: the company secretary role sits close to governance decisions that change when leadership changes. When a new leader steps in, I have watched the entire philosophy of the business shift, with real consequences for centralised versus decentralised reporting, risk appetite, capital expenditure approval, performance expectations, headcount decisions and how the CFO engages with the executive team. The secretariat feels all of that first, because it is where the process lives.
What a startup should actually do
Almost no Australian startup needs a dedicated company secretary. ASIC is explicit that proprietary companies do not need a secretary at all, while public companies must have at least one who ordinarily resides in Australia. Where a board wants the discipline anyway, the practical answers are a corporate services provider on a fixed fee, or the finance leader holding the office with the provider doing the mechanics.
That fits the structure I recommend anyway. For a business between 10 and 50 staff or $5 to $10 million revenue, the model that works is a Head of Finance or Financial Controller handling strategic oversight, financial decision-making support and governance, with an accounts assistant or bookkeeper managing transactional processing. Secretariat sits naturally in the governance half of that, and our own 2026 banding for that seat is $180k to $240k plus equity for a Head of Finance, or $160k to $200k plus super for a Financial Controller.
If you are working out which finance seat should carry governance at your stage, the team structure by stage is set out.
The mistake that costs money
Bolting secretariat onto a role that is already two jobs. What I tell founders is that you almost certainly cannot hire someone strong across every domain on the finance spectrum within a startup budget. If the brief asks for commercial decision support, the month-end close, payroll and full board secretariat, you have written three roles and will hire none of them well.
The version that works is deliberate: name the governance duties explicitly in the role, price them into the band, and outsource the mechanical filings. What you are buying with a senior finance hire is not administration. What I see when someone properly owns finance is board prep getting less chaotic, forecasts becoming more believable and cash conversations getting more accurate. Do not spend that person on lodgements.
For the Australian finance leadership bands the governance duty normally attaches to, the full breakdown by stage is.
Common questions
What does a company secretary earn in Australia?
There is no single honest band, because the role takes three very different shapes. Listed companies run it as a standalone governance executive owning board process, continuous disclosure and the ASX relationship, priced as an executive seat. Private companies usually attach the office to a finance leader with no separate salary line at all. A corporate services firm handling it externally charges an annual service fee instead. Averaging those produces a figure that describes none of them.
Does a startup need a company secretary?
Almost never as a dedicated hire. An Australian proprietary company is not required to appoint one. Where a board wants the discipline, the practical routes are a corporate services provider on a fixed fee, or the finance leader holding the office while the provider handles the mechanics. For a business between 10 and 50 staff or $5 to $10 million revenue, the structure that works is a Head of Finance or Financial Controller handling oversight and governance with transactional processing sitting underneath them.
What drives company secretary pay up?
Four things. Listing status comes first, because it brings continuous disclosure, listing rules and the remuneration report into scope. Then group size, since every entity carries its own filings and minutes. Third is scope: does the role own board and committee process end to end, or only the filings? Last, a legal or risk mandate sitting alongside the secretariat is common in mid-market businesses and moves the seat materially.
Can our Head of Finance be the company secretary?
Frequently yes, and it is the normal arrangement in Australian scale-ups. The important part is naming the governance duties explicitly in the role and pricing them into the band rather than assuming them. In 2026 a Head of Finance sits at $180k to $240k plus equity and a Financial Controller at $160k to $200k plus super. The mistake is bolting secretariat onto a role that is already two jobs, because founders cannot hire someone strong across every finance domain within a startup budget.