The gap between directors’ pensions and those of their staff has widened again, as Britain’s top bosses share a pensions pot worth £900 million.

According to a survey by the TUC, the average executive from Britain’s 100 biggest employers can retire at 60 on a final salary pension worth more than £3 million.

The average pension pot has increased by £300,000, or 15 per cent, from the previous year. A £3 million pension fund will deliver an annual pension of £193,000 – more than 25 times the average occupational pension of £7,500 a year.

Rising pension payouts in the boardroom come as 59 per cent of the companies have closed final salary pensions for new employees in recent years.

The TUC survey analysed the annual reports of the biggest UK employers from the FTSE and those of companies outside the FTSE that have large numbers of staff. It found that the directors of those businesses had final salary or defined benefit pension schemes that were worth £891 million.

For the best-paid directors of the top 100 British employers, the average pension is worth £5.3 million. This will pay out £320,000 a year – 42 times greater than most employees’ pensions.

Lord Browne of Madingley, the former BP chief executive, tops the directors’ league table, with a pension pot worth £21.7 million. Lord Browne, who quit BP in May, is followed by Sir Francis Mackay, the former chairman of Compass, who has a pension of £15.7 million. In third place is Sir Julian Horn-Smith, the former deputy chief executive of Vodafone, who has a £15.2 million pension.

Brendan Barber, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “Even if top directors were in the same scheme as their workforce, they would still get big pensions because their pay is so much greater than those of the staff they employ. But this is not enough for many top bosses, they need to have a guaranteed extra on top.

“Top executive pay has already created a new group of the super-rich who float free from the rest of society. This report shows that this does not stop with their retirement.”

The TUC survey found that it takes directors less time to build up full pensions and that the company contributions they receive are far greater than those of the employees.

For those businesses that reveal full information, directors’ pensions in defined benefit schemes have an accrual rate of one thirtieth, while the usual rate for employees is one sixtieth.

For directors and staff in money purchase schemes, the average contribution to directors was 20 per cent of salary, compared with 5.8 per cent for employees.

John Cridland, deputy director-general of the CBI, said: “These days, successful company directors are in demand around the world.

“So while big-number salaries and pensions might feel uncomfortable or unfair to some, cutting ourselves off from the global talent market or taxing high fliers out of existence would harm the UK’s economy at no benefit to ordinary workers.

“Top executives have often served companies for many years and, like any longstanding employee, are more likely to be in final-salary pension schemes with earlier retirement dates – and will have built up sizeable pension pots, too.”

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