LONDON, Oct 3: The gap between rich and poor workers in Britain is growing, according to a survey published on Tuesday which found top bosses' pay rising nearly 10 times as fast as that of the average employee.

The highest-paid employees in a survey of the FTSE 100 index of leading companies earned some 175,000 pounds (259,525 euros, 330,300 dollars) last year.

One FTSE 100 firms is copper mining company Kazakhmys but the average salary of its miners is just a fraction of its executives at just 2,187 pounds a year.

Top-earning businesses include investment banking, fund management and the oil and property markets, while supermarkets and cleaning companies remained the worst payers.

The salaries of bosses rose by 28 per cent in the 2005 financial year, compared to just 3.7 per cent growth in average earnings, according to the survey by The Guardian in collaboration with Reward Technology Forum.

“This increase in inequality damages social cohesion and holds back the whole economy,” said Brendan Barber, head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella grouping of labour unions in Britain.

This was highlighted by the rise in interest rates to cool the most expensive end of the London housing market, which is driven by huge bonuses paid out to workers in The City financial district, he said.—AFP