Photo: 123RF The survey by business consultants Strategic Pay showed a 2.4 percent fall in the median fee for non-executive directors, which was put down to a "tough and unusual 2020" largely because of the pandemic. The chairs of organisations suffered a bigger fall, 6.3 percent, while the private sector pay rates were significantly ahead of the public sector. Strategic Pay managing director Cathy Hendry said the fall in fees had no doubt been caused by organisations looking to cut costs as much as possible during the pandemic, even as the workload had increased. She doubted the fall in directors' fees would last.