Prime Minister and top footballers 'are overpaid'

Forget fat-cat pay deals, five- figure weekly Premiership wage packets and vast royalties for famous literary names: celebrities, captains of industry and the prime minister are worth a fraction of what they earn, a new poll reveals today.

A survey of what makes a "reasonable" wage shows the gulf between most people's idea of a fair day's pay for a day's work and what is actually taken home.

Premiership football stars are worth only £62,000 a year, a tenth of their average earnings, while the chief executives of top companies should command annual salaries of no more than £120,000 - a world away from the FTSE 100 average of more than £750,000, according to the poll for the Fabian Society, the Labour think-tank.

Only 13 per cent of people believed that top managers in leading companies should be paid more than £500,000, while only 9 per cent thought Premiership footballers were worth more than £500,000 a year.

The YouGov survey of 3,000 people found that best-selling authors should only receive £80,000 a year, while a reasonable pay packet for Prime Minister Gordon Brown was £135,000, more than £50,000 less than his actual salary of £187,000.

The poll shows that people regard £70,000 as fair pay for a GP - real average salaries are more than £100,000. But the pay of a secondary-school headteacher is seen as fair. The poll put reasonable salaries as £62,000, just below the real average of £63,600.

The poll, part of a major research project into fairness in Britain, due to be published this autumn, showed public support for significant pay rises for some trusted workers.

Experienced nurses, who earn a mid-career average of around £26,000 are thought to be worth £33,000 a year, while plumbers, who earn around £24,000 are said to be worth £28,500.

Supermarket check-out workers, who can earn around £12,000 a year, are said to be worth £15,000 and staff in fast-food outlets are thought to be worth £14,000.

Tom Hampson, one of the report's authors, said the survey showed that people instinctively reacted against high earnings and wanted more fairness in society.

When asked who was worth £1m a year, the top rated profession - best-selling authors - were backed by only 6 per cent. Only 5 per cent said a top industrialist should command a £1m salary.

Are they really worth it?

Job/Poll wage/Real average

Prime Minister/£135,000/£187,000

Company MD/£120,000/£750,000

GP/£70,000/£103,000

Premiership footballer/£62,000/£676,000

Secondary headteacher/£62,000/£63,600

Hospital nurse/£33,000/£26,000

Bus driver/£22,500/£19,500