A NEW REPORT by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has found that total pay for top executives in 26 Irish companies comes in at an average of €2.3 million.

The report details the basic bay for the CEOs at the companies in question as well their total remuneration package, including bonuses, showing how basic pay often makes up a tiny slice of overall pay. 

The report outlines that executive pay is typically comprised of five parts; basic pay, bonuses, long-term incentive plans, pension and benefits in kind.

Benefits in kind could include medical or life insurance, interest free loans, relocation expenses or other non-pay related financial benefits.  

Ictu’s figures outline the remuneration packages for the top executives in some of Ireland’s best-known companies, with building group CRH paying out the greatest CEO salary in the list.

Ictu states that CRH CEO Albert Manifold availed of a total remuneration package of €8.7 million in 2017, of which basic pay was €1.4 million.

Second on the list for the year was the €5.3 million salary for the CEO of the DCC group followed by the €4 million and €3.6 million salaries for the top executives in Tullow Oil and Paddy Power respectively. 

The list is not an extensive list of top Irish companies, with firms that are not publicly traded not being obligated to report details of executive pay.

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On average across the 26 companies, the average pay for the top job was €2.3 million, a 6% increase on the same list compiled last year.

In the report, ICTU states that the average salary for Irish workers in 2017 was €37,646, meaning it would take the average worker 230 years to earn the annual salary of the CRH boss.