The chief executives of the country's largest public companies saw their pay rise by more than a third last year, far faster than most wages across the nat-ion, according to a report.

The CEOs of Britain's 30 richest companies – those with a market value of more than £10bn – received pay rises of 33 per cent, at the same time as increasing numbers of British people struggle to cope with the effects of the credit crunch.

The survey, which provides an insight into the true earnings of Britain's high-powered executives, was carried out by the remuneration consultancy MM&K and the proxy voting agency Manifest, and took into account performance-related bonuses and rewards as well as salaries. It found that the average pay of many top executives had risen to a staggering £5m, and had climbed at 10 times the level of inflation in the course of a year.

The Independent Saturday, 24 May 2008