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UK has highest paid CEOs in Europe

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Harmeet
New Update

UK: The UK has the highest paid CEOs in Europe, according to a new study released by Vlerick Business School

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The study looked at the annual reports of all listed companies in Belgium, France, Germany, and The Netherlands - and those of the FTSE 100 in the UK.

Financial data was analysed separately for two categories; companies with total assets of between €1 and €5 billion and companies with total assets of over €5 billion.

The median total compensation of a UK CEO of a company with total assets over €5 billion was found to be just over €4.700.000. The next best paid CEOs were found in Germany at €3.100.00. In contrast, the lowest CEO compensation packages were found to be in Belgium at €1.980.00 and France at €2.290.000

Virtually all the FTSE 100 companies (99 percent) still use cash bonuses to reward their top management but the value of these has dropped 20 percent since 2010. In the UK, over the same period, the value of all incentives such as bonuses, stock options and shares has dropped 35 percent; which may explain why there was an 8 percent drop in the total CEO pay.

Nevertheless, there was a 2 percent increase in incentives as a proportion of pay. In Belgium, combined incentives account for 30 percent of a CEO's remuneration, whilst in Germany these make up to nearly 60 percent.