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Downturn fails to dent SAR chief executives' top salaries

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Chief executives at Hong Kong companies earn the highest salaries in the region despite a harsh operating environment and shrinking staff wages, according to a Watson Wyatt survey.

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The survey, which was released by the consultancy firm's Singapore office yesterday, shows that SAR chief executives are paid an average HK$2.09 million a year.

This ranks Hong Kong No 1 among 12 Asian countries in the survey, followed by Singapore where chief executives receive a basic salary of S$449,634 (about HK$1.96 million) annually.

In contrast to Hong Kong's high unemployment rate, unionist Legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said the survey highlighted rising inequality and social polarisation in the SAR. 'The situation we face is we have fat people at the top and thin people at the bottom,' Mr Lee said.

'We can see the wealth gap in Hong Kong is big; when people say that rising labour costs are driving competitiveness down, in fact a lot of workers don't have enough to feed their families.'

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The survey did not include remuneration such as bonuses and share options, a Watson Wyatt spokeswoman said in Singapore.

She said the survey targeted executives of listed companies and did not cover government officials.

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