Managers in Northern Ireland could be working longer hours but earning less pay, according to a survey by the accountants and management consultants Coopers & Lybrand. In its 1997 survey of management salaries, the company says that although in general the level of overall sales increased during the year, pretax profits were down and managers' earnings fell.

Total remuneration increasingly includes a bonus which could equal 30 per cent of basic salary, said managing partner Mr Stephen Kingon. In the last year, as profits declined, so did the value of bonuses. The total remuneration earned by some managers may actually have fallen below the levels for 1996.

The survey also showed that although working hours and holiday entitlement had remained unchanged over the past eight years, eight out of ten managers routinely worked up to 20 per cent more than their contractual hours.

In the year to the end of September 1997, Northern Ireland's best-performing companies increased pre-tax profits by 30 per cent. Over the same period the average remuneration of the highest-paid directors increased by an average of 17.4 per cent.

This was in sharp contrast with the previous year, when the best-performing companies pushed profits up by an average of 36 per cent, but held the average remuneration paid to their directors to just under six per cent.