THEY are in charge of our working lives - and are rewarded handsomely for it.

The latest boss pay 'league table' shows captains of industry taking home between a jaw-dropping £4.2m and a more modest £30,000 for their responsibilities.

Many of these directors are familiar faces in Hampshire, where there are 900,000 workers and the average pay is £25,480.

The remuneration index, sponsored by south coast legal firm Trethowans and featuring 378 leading earners, has been compiled by DECISION, a management magazine.

Figures are based on publicly available accounts filed by companies in the south last year.

Heading the table is £4.2m Bart Becht, the chief executive of Slough-based Reckitt Benckiser, which makes products like antiseptic Dettol, cold remedy Lemsip and hair remover Veet.

Hampshire's top earner is Ian Much. As chief executive of De La Rue in Basingstoke, which prints more than 150 national currencies, he received £1.1m.

Southampton's highest paid director is Skandia's Alan Wilson, at £1m. He is one of 36 directors in the table who are in the sought-after £1m-plus club.

Michael Foote, the chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch of the Institute of Directors, said high salaries for those with special talents are part and parcel of a free market economy.

He added: "What noone, including the Institute of Directors, likes hearing about is people being paid over the odds for failure.

"Directors are paid what they are worth to a company, but they shouldn't profit when things start to go wrong."

Sir Roy Gardner, the chief executive of Centrica, got just under £1.5m.

Centrica owns British Gas, which employs 1,000 people at its customer call centre in Southampton.

John Draper, the boss of tools distributor Draper Tools, which employs more than 250 people at its Eastleigh base, was the highest paid director of an independent company in area, with £548,000.

There are a host of other well-known directors who feature in the regional business world.

Stella David made £281,000 in her last year as boss at Southampton-based drinks manufacturer Bacardi-Martini UK, which has 500 staff.

Keith Satchell, the chief executive of Southampton Football Club sponsor Friends Provident, which employs more than 1,000 at its Salisbury base, received £811,000 - an increase of £79,000.

The life insurer has a £1m sponsorship deal with the Saints, and Mr Satchell is a VIP regular at the Saints' £32m Friends Provident St Mary's stadium.

Paul Lester, who heads shipbuilder and support services company VT Group, which is headquartered at Hedge End and runs a £50m warship factory in Portsmouth, took home £525,000.

Martin Long, 38, head of Basingstoke's Game Group, the specialist retailer of computer software and video games, got £568,000.

He lives near Romsey and used to work in Southampton for business adviser Numerica.

Gordon Page, chairman of aerospace company Cobham, which employs 520 people at a flight refuelling technology factory in Titchfield, received £792,000.

Terry Twigger of aerospace company Meggitt, which employs 300 people near Fareham, banked just under £503,600.

David Evans, chief executive of Whiteley-based defence contractor Chemring, which makes missile decoys, was paid £279,219.

John Caulcutt, head of airlines supplies group Watermark, which employs 40 people at its head office in Upham, near Winchester, bucked the trend in rising payments. He landed £194,400 - a drop of £43,000.

Allan Allkins, the chief executive of UK department store Beale, which has 40 staff at its Winchester outlet, bagged £139,000.

Rubert Lowe, chairman of Southampton Leisure Holdings, the company that runs Premiership soccer club Saints, netted £397,189, a drop of £9,324.

Larry Dillner, publisher of DECISION, said: "A chief executive responsible for a company with a workforce the size of a town, whose leadership is a prime reason why the company contributes millions in tax every year, will earn less than a squad player at a premier league football club - yet these are people whose leadership and sense of purpose generate the wealth which pays for our schools and hospitals.

"Unfortunately the issue of directors' pay has been clouded by a few individuals at the bigger quoted companies who seem to have been rewarded for failure. That isn't the case with our captains of industry in the south."

For a list of the highest paid directors in the Hampshire region - see the Business South supplement inside today's Daily Echo.