UK corporate chiefs are still enjoying pay rises way over the rate of inflation, according to a study of executive pay.

A review of the pay of the heads of Britain's biggest companies found that their base salaries increased on average by 9.3% over the past year to �574,000.

And when cash bonuses were included, their income jumped by an average of 11.1% to �869,000.

The review was carried out by Monks Partnership, a consultancy arm of accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, and looked at the annual reports of FTSE 100 companies produced last year.

Smaller rise

In a sign of the tougher economic conditions of the past 12 months, the pay rises were lower than last year.

In 2001, the average salary climbed 14.9% while total earnings leapt by 16.7%.

But the TUC said the increases still sent out the wrong signals to employees.

"At a time when corporate confidence is so low, this kind of executive excess is even more disappointing," said the TUC's general secretary John Monks.

On Wednesday the latest pay figures for the whole economy showed average earnings increasing by 3.9%.

Big differences

Monks Partnership said the highest average base salaries were seen in the media sector, while the smallest were at companies in the financial or property sector.

It also found that while average bonus payments were equivalent to 46.5% of base salary, there were big differences between industry sectors.

Those in the retail sector had the lowest bonuses with an average of 14.6% of salary, while in the pharmaceutical and chemicals sector, chief executives enjoyed bonuses of 81.6% of salaries.

The Monks survey covered the pay of 70 chief executives or full-time chairmen who had been in their job for more than a year.