BSkyB's Tony Ball walked off with the best pay deal in 2003

The newspaper said director pay soared 12.8%, taking average chief executive basic pay to almost �600,000 - compared to �24,600 for the UK average.

Nearly 190 directors - all men - were paid a total of more than �1m.

The findings come at a time when many investors have been calling for more transparency in the relationship between boardroom and shop floor pay.

Wage call

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has been calling for "companies to adopt good corporate practice in areas of disclosure, pay packages and performance".

Under the proposal, the NAPF - which represents one fifth of stock market investors - has said it wants companies to publish figures showing the ratio of directors pay compared to workforce wages.

TOP FIVE BEST PAID DIRECTORS* Tony Ball, BSkyB - �11.5m Ken Hydon, Vodafone - �9.9m Michael Green, Carlton - �9.4m David Reid, Tesco - �8.6m Bart Brecht, Reckitt Benckiser - �7.7m *SOURCE: Guardian pay survey 2003

The Guardian's figures show that bosses fared very well in pay deals compared to normal staff.

While pay for bosses jumped 12.8%, staff saw average wages for 2003 rise just 4.7%. When City bonuses were stripped out that figure fell to 3.6%.

However, the pay increases were almost half of that seen in 2002 when director pay surged 23%, following a 17% rise in 2001.

According to the newspaper, the highest paid director last year was Tony Ball of BSkyB who racked up a pay package worth a total of �11.4m.

Mr Ball quit the pay-TV broadcaster late last year - but his pay deal includes long term share deals which could be worth much more in the years to come.

Glass ceiling?

Of the 105 FTSE listed firms used by the Guardian, Marjorie Scardino head of publishing group Pearson was the highest paid woman - earning �901,385.

She was one of only six women to earn more than �500,000 in 2003, illustrating that the glass ceiling may still be in place when it comes to salaries.

Further number crunching by The Guardian discovered that average pay for workers at FTSE 100 companies had grown - but so had the gap between the best and worst paid staff.

Pub staff are among the lowest paid, according to the survey

Hedge fund manager was the best paying company, with an average annual salary of �104,563 - �20,500 more than last year.

On the other side of the coin are employees at pub group Mitchells & Butlers who were paid �9,401 - up just �920 on last year.

A typical trend of the survey was that the upper echelons of the pay scale were populated by oil, high-tech and financial firms.

At the bottom end of the scale were mainly retail, pub and restaurant trades where part time and low paid work are more common.

However, The Guardian did add that figures for the pub chain are skewed as it only covers the eight months since it came into being.

Pay gaps

Supermarket giant Tesco is listed ninth among the bottom 10 worst payers in the Guardian survey, with staff earning an average of �12,945.

That compares to a pay deal of �4.33m for chief executive Terry Leahy - and equates to 335 times the average pay at the firm.

BOTTOM FIVE PAYERS* Mitchells & Butlers - �9,401 Compass - �9,416 Wm Morrison - �9,556 Whitbread - �9,623 Scottish & Newcastle - �9,643 *SOURCE: Guardian pay survey 2003

On the pay ratio scale, Carlton's Gerry Murphy was the most "egalitarian", the newspaper said, with his �200,000 salary just four times that of the average worker at the firm.

BSkyB's Tony Ball crops up at the top of the pile once again - with a pay package worth 447 times that of the average worker.

The average ratio for UK firms, the Guardian said, was 72:1.