The pay package enjoyed by the Netherlands’ top executives fell by an average of 21% last year to around €3m, according to research by the Volkskrant.

Best paid executive last year was Shell’s CEO Jeroen van der Veer, who earned €8.7m, down nearly 8% on 2007. Number two on the list was KPN’s Ad Scheepbouwer whose total income rose nearly 16% to €7.8m.
Pay went down sharpest at Aegon New CEO Alexander Wijnaendts earned 80% less than his predecessor.
The decline in total pay was due to the 32% fall in bonuses and 29% drop in share prices.
The Volkskrant looked at the salary packages paid by 22 of the 25 companies included in the blue-chip AEX index. TomTom, Boskalis and SBM Offshore have not yet published their senior staff salaries.