Pay and bonus deals for the leaders of the Amsterdam stock exchange’s 25 blue chip companies showed an average decline of 8.1% last year, the Volkskrant reports.

The paper bases its claim on analysing the remuneration packages outlined in the annual reports of 21 of the 25 companies listed on the AEX.
The research shows bonuses were smaller and few if any shares were handed out.
Top earner remains Shell’s chief executive Peter Voser with a pay package worth €8.7m. This is 17% down on a year ago, the Volkskrant said.
Right direction
‘Remuneration is moving in the right direction,’ said Jan Maarten Slagter, director of the investors’ lobby group VEB. ‘That is why it hurts all the more when some go the other way.’
For example, Peter Bakker from TNT, Malcolm Brinded from Shell and Hans Wijers from AkzoNobel all left their current jobs with more than a year’s salary as a golden handshake – in contravention of corporate governance guidelines.
There has also been considerable criticism of executives at PostNL and TNT Express who have been given hefty pay rises and bonuses while cutting jobs and refusing to top up the pension fund.