Top executives at Britain's 350 largest companies are starting to see their pay packets hit by the credit crunch, according to a new survey by Deloitte.

The salaries of the FTSE 350's executive directors went up this year, but more slowly than 12 months ago. The median increase was 6.2 per cent, down from 7 per cent.

Only six directors missed out on their annual bonus because of a downturn in their companies' performance. Most bonus schemes paid out between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of the maximum sum up for grabs.

However, Carol Arrowsmith, head of remuneration at Deloitte, predicted that the impact of the tougher economic environment would be more stark next year.

“I think this year will turn out to be more challenging than some companies expected and we'll see more people missing out on bonuses,” she said.

Ms Arrowsmith said that 2008 was going to be a tricky year for boards' remuneration committees, as they attempt to balance the pay demands of executives with pressure from shareholders not to pay for poor performance.

“Companies do expect to be scrutinised more carefully,” Ms Arrowsmith said. “Shareholders are actually finding it quite difficult, because part of them would like to make sure that pay only increases for performance that is monetarily better than in the past, but realistically they know that's unlikely.”

The stakes are also much higher than in the last recession in the early 1990s, Ms Arrowsmith said. A quarter of the FTSE 100 and a fifth of the FTSE 250 increased the size of the annual bonuses available to their executives this year and the median potential bonus is now 150 per cent of salary at the FTSE 100.

“In the early Nineties, bonuses were typically 50 per cent of salary, plus salaries have gone up,” she said.

The 30 largest companies in the FTSE 100 are pulling away from the pack with the pay that they offer executives. The top 30 pay their chief executives more than £1 million, compared with £750,000 a year on average for chief executives of the other 70 companies in the index.

The top 30 also offer their executives additional incentives worth four times their salary, compared with 2.75 per cent times salary outside the top 30.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive