PwC chairman sees his pay rise to £2.5m

Kieran Poynter, the chairman of the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, took home £2.5m last year - a 20 per cent increase on his pay in the previous 12 months.

The firm's management board, which includes Mr Poynter and 10 other senior partners, earned a total of £14m, up from £12m the previous year. PwC's 793 partners earned an average of £716,000 each - a 17 per cent rise on 2005.

The pay boost came as PwC reported a 24 per cent increase in underlying operating profits to £577m in the UK on turnover of £2bn.

Mr Poynter's earnings make him one of the highest-paid accountants in the country. But the accolade of best-paid still goes to KPMG's Mike Rake who picked up more than £3m last year in salary and bonuses.

PwC paid a bonus of £68m to its 14,300 staff last year. Total employee costs were £841m while the average salary for an employee was a little less than £51,000. The firm also said yesterday that it had agreed to inject a further £140m into its staff pension fund over the next three years to eliminate the deficit in the scheme.