Accountancy firm Kingston Smith examined remuneration for the highest-paid directors at the 40 biggest UK PR firms in 2015 via Companies House records.
The highest-paid directors of Weber Shandwick UK (listed as CMGRP UK) and Bell Pottinger Private were rewarded with £1.041m and £850k respectively.
Other agencies with notable growth in remuneration for the highest-paid director in 2015 include Freuds, up from £140k to £301k.
There were also steep rises at the likes of Next 15 (up 27.2 per cent to £815k), Hill + Knowlton (up 31.4 per cent to £431k), Good Relations (almost doubling to £215k), Axicom (up 46.5 per cent to £274k) and Hotwire (up 62.6 per cent to £200k).
However, there were major declines in remuneration for the highest-paid directors at agency holding companies including Daniel J Edelman (down 26.1 per cent to £218k) and Golin/Harris International (down just over 50 per cent to £224k).
Holding companies for Grayling, Chandler Chicco, Teneo Blue Rubicon, 3 Monkeys (which earlier this year merged with Zeno) and Lewis also saw steep declines.
In total, 18 of the top 40 UK PR companies rewarded their highest-paid director more in 2015 than in the previous year, and 14 paid them less (the other agencies either paid the same or the information is not available). Combined pay for the highest-paid directors across the 40 companies rose 5.1 per cent on the previous year.
Kingston Smith pointed out that for Lansons, this figure is the profit share of the profit attributable to the member with the largest entitlement. Lansons stated: "Lansons is a partnership and Kingston Smith have confused how its partners profits are distributed. The real figure for highest earner is less than half the figure they have estimated."
See below for the full remuneration table:
