NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Corporate board members got a sweet raise in 2006, right along with the corporate CEOs whose compensation they award.

Median total compensation for outside directors - meaning non-employees of the company - rose handsomely in the three major sectors analyzed by The Conference Board, which released its findings on Thursday.

Quiz Take the quiz Do you deserve a raise? Before asking, know your strengths and weaknesses. 1. If you left the company, how easy or hard would it be for the company to replace you? Easy      Hard This quiz is adapted from Are You Paid What You're Worth?, by Michael O'Malley (Broadway Books, $15).

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In manufacturing, directors' compensation rose 19 percent to $109,000 from $91,250 in 2005.

Those in financial services did even better, boosting their compensation 29 percent to $83,000 from $64,500.

And those in the service sector enjoyed the biggest jump - 30 percent - to $106,250 from $81,875 a year earlier.

Total compensation includes all fees, retainers, committee pay and stock compensation. It does not include travel and accommodations when a board member is required to travel to meetings.

According to Charles Peck, a compensation specialist with the Conference Board, the reason for the increases likely had to do with the increased time and effort required of corporate board members in an age of increased regulation and scrutiny from Sarbanes-Oxley and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Of course the time and effort involved doesn't amount to that required for a part-time job - or even a stint as a holiday Santa.

Corporate board members generally attend six all-day, full board meetings a year. In addition they're expected to work on two committees, which typically meet three times a year, although those meetings sometimes coincide with the full board meeting. They also have to review documents in preparation for those meetings and often participate in phone meetings throughout the year.

The time commitment is typically greater for directors on the audit committee, which meets eight times a year, and for those on the compensation committee, which meets four times a year, Peck said.

CEOs, meanwhile, did quite nicely as well, with their median compensation rising in all industries, the Conference Board found. Those in construction had the highest median pay in 2005 at $2.6 million, while those in computer services scraped bottom at $848,000.

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In another CEO pay survey, the Corporate Library found big raises didn't coincide with top performance.Meanwhile, the perks enjoyed by corporate CEOs can be worth millions. That's been the case at Capital One (Charts), Nike (Charts) and Avis Budget Group (Charts) to name a few.