Brits pack the top pay lists

BRITAIN'S bosses are among the best paid in Europe, according to research by Forbes Global. Although our captains of industry still lag behind American business leaders, they were ahead of most of their Continental neighbours last year.

The US pays out the most generous rewards in the world. There, a typical chief executive running a company with £300m or more in sales earns £1.23m.

Executives in Argentina take more than £550,000 to tango, marginally more than Mexican bosses. Canada hands out rewards of nearly £500,000.

European bosses are best off in Belgium, where they typically make £442,300. The UK is the next best place with chief executives taking home an average of £424,500 last year - ahead of their counterparts in the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Germany, France and Spain.

The UK also makes a strong showing in the league tables of the best-rewarded individuals outside the US.

Executives at British companies accounted for 10 of the top 20 slots in 2002 - more than any other single country. They include BP's Lord (John) Browne, former Vodafone supremo Sir Christopher Gent, Diageo's Paul Walsh, Brian Gilbertson of mining group BHP Billiton, Matt Barrett of Barclays bank and his rivals Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland and former HSBC chief Sir Keith Whitson.

Also in the top 20 are Anthony Burgmans of Anglo-Dutch consumer brands group Unilever and Sir Phil Watts of Royal Dutch/Shell.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Garnier, battered by a huge shareholder revolt at London-listed drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline over his proposed £22m package, comes in at number 15 with £2.4m.

Over at French cosmetics group L'Oreal, British-born boss Lindsay Owen-Jones clearly thinks he is worth it with remuneration of £3.8m.

Forbes says Britain has the most transparent reporting standards of any country, unlike Germany which often keeps shareholders in the dark over bosses' pay.