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The burgeoning pay packets of the UK's business chiefs have come under fresh scrutiny, with a new report claiming that wages for the country's leading company directors soared by 37 per cent last year.

For the first time the total wage bill for executives employed by FTSE 100 companies has topped £1 billion, the Guardian newspaper claims.

The paper's annual survey of executive pay found that directors employed by the top 100 firms on the London stock market each take home an average of £2,875,000 a year.

Analysts say last year's staggering increase in executive pay is more than 11 times the average rise in UK earnings and takes the ratio between bosses' and employees' pay to 98 to1.

The Guardian survey, conducted in association with pay consultancy the Reward Technology Forum, found that Barclays executive Bob Diamond earned more than any other UK director last year. The head of the British bank's investment banking arm took home £23 million last year, with his £250,000 basic salary boosted by lucrative bonuses.

Meanwhile a total of just 249 directors were found to have received salaries, bonuses and benefits that added up to more than £1 million.

The latest figures are likely to be seized upon as evidence of a growing gap between the rich and poor in Britain and come after the Guardian published separate figures yesterday, which showed that bonus payments to City highfliers climbed by 30 per cent this year.

Based on preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), yesterday's figures revealed that bonuses for the million people who work in the UK's financial services sector climbed to a whopping £14.1 billion.

Commenting on the latest revelations about the extent of executive pay growth, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber accused Britain's boardrooms of "slowly losing touch with reality."

But the Institute of Directors told the Guardian that "exceptional performance" should be rewarded in business.