GMB union calls for minimum wage hike as survey reveals executives earn seven times the average wage

Directors and chief executives of major organisations earn an average of £214,000 annually, 714% of the UK average wage of £29,999, according to a GMB analysis of pay by occupation for 2007.

Second on a list of 341 posts in the union's occupational pay league were brokers on £101,627, followed by financial managers and chartered secretaries on £84,063 and medical practitioners who took home £78,882. In fifth place were senior officers in national government, on £69,404.

Waiters and waitresses filled the bottom slot, taking home £11,303, topped by school mid-day assistants on £11,439.

A number of occupations hovering around the UK average of £29,999 include storage and warehouse managers, rail construction and maintenance operatives, engineering technicians and researchers.

Train drivers, at 55th in the league, are the highest paid manual workers earning an average of £37,234, while nurses are in 138th position earning £27,234.

Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary said, "There are some people at the top earning 40 and 50 times those at the bottom. We are asked to believe that those at the top need to be 'incentivised' by multi-million pay packages to maintain a dynamic economy, while at the same time those at the bottom in the public sector must make sacrifices for the good of the economy.

"GMB members do not buy this logic. Those at the top are unnecessarily being paid too much and there is no evidence that there is any benefit from this except to line the pockets of an elite.

"GMB wants to see the tax system used to even out the rewards and the National Minimum Wage to rise to £7 per hour to help those at the bottom," he said.