Italian and Spanish CEOs receive highest salaries in Europe

Chief executive officers in Italy and Spain receive the highest basic salaries in Europe, according to research by The Federation of European Employers.

Its Pay in Europe 2013 survey, which provided median pay figures for 32 job positions in 47 different countries and territories, also found that Denmark offers the highest gross pay levels for staff in middle order jobs

However, the differential between Europe’s poorer and higher paying countries is narrowing.

In some countries, such as Moldova where gross hourly pay levels are just 4% of those in Denmark, this is occurring at a slower rate.

The survey found that nine countries currently have median wage and salary levels of less than 10% of those seen in Denmark:

  • Moldova (4%).
  • Belarus (5%).
  • Albania (5%).
  • Ukraine (6%).
  • Bulgaria (7%).
  • Macedonia (7%).
  • Serbia (7%).
  • Romania (9%).
  • The Russian Federation (9%).

Robin Chater, secretary-general of the Federation of European Employers, said: “There are some signs that employers are converting bonus payments into base salary for senior staff and that in many eastern and southern European states the increased attentions of tax authorities is bringing many hitherto unrecorded payments into the formal payroll.

“Although gross salary levels in eastern Europe are rising, the continuation of inflation rates well above the European average is meaning that, for many people in counties such as Romania and Turkey, real pay levels are failing to improve.”