If your life’s goal is to be a highly paid chief executive officer, the US is the place. But if your dream is just to be richer than society, SA and India are great bets too. In either case, probably best to avoid Thailand, Poland and China. A Bloomberg ranking of CEO compensation at companies filling benchmark indexes in 25 of the world’s largest economies shows the biggest paychecks - by far - are written in the U.S. Heads of S&P 500 businesses get pay packages averaging $16.9m, about 2.6 times more than what their counterparts reap abroad. In second-place Switzerland, CEOs get 1.6 times the average. The figures show that CEOs in SA and India take home more pay when this is compared to the estimated income generated by an average worker - out-earning their American colleagues on a relative basis. South African retail legend, Whitey Basson, was paid R100m over the last financial year. In China, pay is 90% below the average - at least based on disclosures by companies in the Shangha...

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