Abstract

This article critically examines dominant theoretical perspectives on executive remuneration in the context of South Africa’s constitutional commitment to substantive equality, human dignity and social justice. Certain theories on executive remuneration are analysed to assess their explanatory power and normative adequacy in light of the country’s deeply entrenched socio-economic inequality. The article argues that while these theories have shaped remuneration practices in the corporate sector, they largely reinforce, rather than challenge, excessive pay disparities and fail to align with the transformative goals enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Drawing on the concept of transformative constitutionalism, the article highlights the obligation of private actors, including companies, to respect and advance constitutional values. In response to the limitations of existing remuneration theories, the article proposes the Inclusive Redress Theory (‘IRT’), a normative framework grounded in principles of substantive equality and social redress. The IRT advocates for mechanisms such as maximum pay ratios and redress-linked incentive structures to ensure fairness and accountability in executive remuneration. The article concludes that adopting such a framework could help to focus corporate practices on the constitutional imperative of social transformation in post-apartheid South Africa.