How times have changed for boards

It is easy to use Sarbanes-Oxley as a scapegoat for just about everything. Whether the law is responsible for many of the changes to corporate boards is an open question. The fact remains, however, that boards are radically different now than they were in 2002. A new study by researchers at the University of Georgia lays out some metrics. Average pay rose from about $52,500 in 2001 to about $80,650 on average just three years later. These costs hit small companies harder. They paid $3.20 in director fees per $1,000 of revenue in 2004, which is 81 cents more than in 2001. Large companies paid 32 cents per $1,000 of revenue for large companies, 7 cents more than in 2001. No surprise here: Audit committees met an average of 2.6 meetings times per year vs. 5.1 meetings three years later. For large firms, meetings average 4.5 times per year in 2001 and 8.2 three years later. D&O costs also soared, more than tripling for large companies.  

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- here's a release