Spare a thought for Dr Michael Smurfit, whose pay and bonus package last year was worth £5.2 million (#6.6 million).

The performance is unlikely to be matched this year due to weaker first-quarter trading at its part-owned US subsidiary, Smurfit Stone.

"I say this sadly for both of us," he told a shareholder at last week's annual meeting. Yet come the evil hour, Dr Smurfit will hardly starve.

The Margin calculates his package in 2000 was worth £14,246.57 every day of the year. That's only slightly less than the average annual wage in all industrial sectors - £18,921 in 1999, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.

So there really is no reason to be sad.