While most of the population has been hit hard by the current economic crisis, top executive in Britain's giant companies seem to be having no issues as they have been taking home a whopping amount of ?500,000 over and above their basic salaries, if recent figures are to be believed.

As the research shows, chief executives of top British firms are taking home the same amount of money that they were back in 2006, when the economy was witnessing a big boom. If Income Data Services (IDS) figures are to be believed, total remuneration for bosses of various companies fell by just 1.5% in the current year as compared to the last. Also, a 29% plunge in bonuses was seen which could have been a result of a 7.4% rise in salaries.

Although the fall in bonuses has been the the biggest ever in the past decade, top officers are, nevertheless, taking home bigger paychecks and more money than ever on top of their basic salary. The study took into consideration UK's top 350 companies and revealed that while bonuses were down by 31.3% in all, salaries rose by 6.6%

Editor of the IDS Directors' Pay Report shared, "In previous downturns growth in bonuses slowed, but for bonuses to shrink … is highly unusual. This recession is posing difficult questions about how directors should be remunerated. When incentive plans fail to trigger, remuneration committees often respond by redesigning schemes so that targets are easier to hit. There has been a lot of activity around incentive scheme design over the past year, raising the prospect of high payouts for directors in future years".