Lumped together the pay checks collected by the top executives of BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Coles for financial year 2010-2011 alone and you'll get more than $43 million, which is more than enough for an average Australian to last a lifetime.

As reported by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors earlier this month, the country's high-flying CEOs enjoyed salary spikes of more than 130 percent over the past 10 years, with an average chief executive from any of the blue chip firms said to have taken home a median pay of $2.79 million in 2010 alone.

Such jaw-dropping executive remunerations were issued by leading companies amidst suggestions that many sectors of domestic economy were struggling, which were reflected by Australian workers average income of about $66,000 each year while given only some 52 percent pay hike over the past decade.

As many companies flagged weak business environment, shareholders, the council report showed, only collected returns of 31 percent, leaving puzzling indicators on how the hefty payments could have been realised against a general backdrop of economic uncertainties, the council said.

From the annual company reports provided by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), CBA chief Ralph Norris secured the top position as the country's highest paid CEO as his company revealed that he had a pay slip totalling to $16.2 million in the past financial year.

Coming close was Coles boss Ian McLeod, who amassed a total pay package of $15.6 million last year, which according to Coles parent company, Wesfarmers, was mostly comprised of more than $11 million in numerous form of bonuses.

McLeod, Wesfarmers said, was rewarded for his chief role in turning around the misfortunes of the grocery chain, which on August posted sales increase of more than $32 billion and anchored on its 21 percent improvement on full-year earnings.

The Australian reported on Friday that judging by his declared year-round remuneration, McLeod earned much more in a single day what an average Australian had to toil for a year.

By comparison, McLeod bested the take home pay of BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers, who runs Australia's largest business operations and the world's biggest mining firm, and that of his own boss, Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder.

Kloppers, according to BHP's report this week, was paid a total of $11.6 million in financial year 2010-2011 that covered his base salary, cash bonuses and incentives while Goyder's role as Wesfarmers chief only earned him $6.9 million in the same period, which reflected a slide of 13 percent from his previous annual pay.