Reckitt Benckiser boss Bart Becht earned almost £27m more than Tesco's Sir Terry Leahy last year.

Becht was the highest-paid chief executive in the FTSE 100 in the 2008/2009 financial year, earning more than £35m in salary, bonuses, benefits and realised share incentive plans.

His earnings dwarf those of Sir Terry, the highest-paid supermarket chief executive, who earned £8.2m. Sainsbury's Justin King was paid a total of £2.05m, while Morrisons' Marc Bolland earned £1.7m.

The totals were compiled by new online tool RTF Navigator, which allows customers to buy remuneration data on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 executives. The data, which is taken from company accounts, allows easy comparisons to be made. For example, it shows that Sainsbury's finance director Darren Shapland and trading director Mike Coupe earned more than King, with pay of £2.2m and £2.3m respectively. Several senior Tesco executives earned more than the chief executives of rival chains, due to cashing in more of their share incentives. Last year Tesco director Tim Mason, who runs US business Fresh & Easy, had a total remuneration of £5.8m and international director Philip Clarke was paid £4.3m.

The data also allows easy comparisons between the pay of executives and employees. Sir Terry earns 665 times more than the average Tesco worker, who is on £12,375 a year, while King earns 152 times more than the average Sainsbury's employee's £13,488 per year.

"Executive pay is often a controversial issue, but the fact that so much comes from share incentives demonstrates that corporate success and pay are tied closely together," said remuneration consultant Peter Newhouse.

"The fact is that Tesco has consistently outperformed its peer group and both shareholders and executives are reaping the benefits."

Pay for executives at top consumer goods companies tends to be higher than the retailers. Paul Walsh, chief executive of Diageo, was paid a total of just over £5m last year, while British American Tobacco chief executive Paul Adams got £6.4m.

Reckitt keeps on upward track with 8% quarterly sales hike (29/7/09)