If companies want to boost their short-term profitability, the best way to do it is to grant a high remuneration level and commit strongly to incentives such as bonuses and share-related reward schemes. It is striking, however, that this has a boomerang effect on the company’s longer-term financial performance. As it turns out, high variable pay and a strong emphasis on profitability criteria have a negative impact on company profits. This is a remarkable finding in the annual survey of top salaries by the Executive Remuneration Research Centre.