Union leaders have attacked the "stratospheric" level of directors' pay after new research showed that chief executives earned almost 100 times more than other workers.
Pay analysts Incomes Data Services (IDS) said average earnings of top executives had doubled since the year 2000.
The pay of chief executives of the top 100 firms in the country had jumped by 43% from just over £2 million to £2.8 million in the past year alone, said the report.
The earnings included basic wages, long-term incentive payments and gains made from selling share options.
The new figures showed that the country's top 100 company executives now earned 98 times more than all full-time workers, up from 39 at the beginning of the decade.
Steve Tatton of IDS said: "Oscar Wilde may not have had directors' pay in mind when he said 'moderation is a fatal thing ... nothing succeeds like excess', but given our latest survey it seems like remuneration committees have acted on his advice."
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber commented: "The stratospheric levels of directors' pay compared to average wages mean that executives now live in a class apart, even from employees in their own companies. It is not just socially divisive, but bad for the economy."
John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said: "It is essential UK companies are able to recruit the best people to meet the great demands of delivering success in senior roles - and that means offering a competitive package.
"It is down to remuneration committees within individual firms to make sure that pay and reward is set at the correct level with the right controls, and they are well-equipped to do so.
"It is, of course, important that high levels of reward are paid only as a result of success so it is appropriate that a significant proportion of earnings is made up of incentives, rather than basic pay."
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