Deloitte's Directors' Remuneration Report 2008 (external website) finds that executive pay has been hit by the economic slowdown, with the median salary increase for directors in FTSE 350 companies down to 6.2%, compared with 7% a year ago. As Carol Arrowsmith, partner and head of the remuneration team, points out:

Executive salary increases during 2007 were still around 2% higher than increases in [retail prices index inflation] and average earnings, but we are starting to see the impact of a tougher economic climate on salary increases.

Deloitte's survey also sees remuneration in the largest UK companies moving away from that in the rest of the FTSE 100 organisations. In the top 30, a chief executive's typical annual salary is well over £1 million, compared with £750,000 outside this group. And the incentives for executives in the top organisations can be worth four times their salary. Arrowsmith says:

Award levels have been increasing over a number of years but it is important, particularly in this climate, that there is a good reason to increase the award and it raises the pressure on remuneration committees to ensure that the performance targets are robust.

The findings of the Deloitte research are echoed in the Guardian annual survey of directors' pay (external website) in FTSE companies, which identifies a growing gap between the executives of Britain's leading companies and a "super-wealthy elite at the top of the earnings pile".

The research finds that a long period of rapidly accelerating earnings has come to an end as the global economic slowdown continues: the average chief executive's remuneration package fell slightly to £2.8 million in 2007, from the figure of £2.9 million the previous year. But 34 directors of FTSE 100 companies had packages worth more than £5 million, up from 20 in 2006. Three directors earned more than £20 million.

The Guardian report attributes the acceleration in remuneration over recent years in part to the "culture of massive pay" fostered among hedge funds, private equity firms and investment banks - firms that are not included in its survey.

Many of the highest-paid directors are found in the financial services industry.

These findings may make interesting reading for the chancellor, Alistair Darling, who renewed his call for pay restraint in a speech to the TUC this week. He said:

... pay matters right across the board - in the private and the public sector - in the boardroom as much as on the shop floor. You're rightly concerned about excessive bonuses - especially when people seem to get money for failing not succeeding. And that's got to change. A bonus should be for hard work, not big mistakes. Excessive bonuses, which encourage traders to take excessive risks, at a time of easy global credit - one of the major reasons for the global credit crunch. We need to learn the lessons to prevent this happening again.

Responding to the Guardian survey, Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary, said:

This survey shows that no one, not the shareholders, not politicians, nor consumers, is exercising any restraint on the growth in pay to top bosses and the multimillionaire elite who run the financial system.

• If you are actively involved in your organisation's pay-setting process, we would like to invite you to take part in the 20th annual IRS Pay and Benefits Bulletin Pay Prospects survey of UK private sector reward practices. Each year, this major study looks in detail at how private sector employers set their annual pay review and reward priorities for the coming year. Taking part in our research allows you to compare your expected pay award and reward practices with those of other organisations. The closing date is Thursday 18 September 2008.