[Growltigger]

Macjimmy, the clever executive will get a salary, but benchmarked at a level that hopefully wont upset the shareholders too much.

He will then get bonuses, discretionary and non-discretionary.

He will also get pension contributions.

Add then stock options and some sexy advanced payment mechanism to get money paid offshore to avoid taxes as a "sweetener" and then your average board chappie is wealthier than Croesus

Oh, and the clever ones negotiate golden handshakes and golden parachutes, so it makes it damn expensive to get rid of them.

Eg head of AstraZeneca in England, sack him? no worries, but that will be £38,000,000 please