The average yearly salary received by those in the directorship position of £212,910 (US$422,783) or £17,743 per month, is more than doubled the salary of the second best paid job, Brokers.

On average, Brokers take home an annual pay of £94,293, or £7,858 monthly. The two top positions were followed by Financial Managers (£77,931), Aircraft Pilot & Engineers (£63,663), Mining Managers (£58,502), R&D Managers (£54,950), Sales & Marketing Managers (£54,029) and Air Traffic Controllers (£51,911).

Generally, to be in the top 10% of income earners in Britain, one needs to have a salary in excess of £46,000 per year. And as the single salary earners are concerned, the best pay goes to Barclay’s Head of Investment, Bob Diamond with a staggering pay of £250,000. This does not include the bonus of over £20 million he received for the last year’s fiscal ending.

Other top earners include the Chief of the Defense Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup with £230,000 and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, £188,000.

In the top 20 table, the government officers, particularly the seniors, enjoy significant presence at 16th, taking home a respectable £44,7204 yearly income.

For some reason, the medical profession, which ranked fourth in the previous year’s table, was not anywhere to be seen in the latest survey.

The research was carried out and released by Mercer Consulting, a major consulting firm specializing in human resource, consulting, outsourcing and investment services.

The survey was carried out by measuring the comparative cost of over 200 items covering the housing, food, transportation, clothing, household goods, services, entertainment and so on.

Mercer’s survey was considered as one of the most comprehensive cost of living surveys around in the world and is mainly used to assist multinational companies and the respective government to determine the salary and compensation package to expatriates coming to work in their countries.

Tokyo was followed by its neighbor’s capital, Seoul, then Hong Kong, Osaka and Singapore in 5th position. Last year Seoul topped the table with Tokyo trailing in second and with the new result, the two swapped places with each other.

In 6th to 10th positions come Beijing, Shanghai, Almaty (Kazakhstan), Mumbai (India) and New Delhi.

10 top ranking cities in Asia:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Seoul, South Korea
3. Hong Kong
4. Osaka, Japan
5. Singapore
6. Beijing, China
7. Shanghai, China
8. Almaty, Kazakhstan
9. Mumbai, India
10. New Delhi, India

Mukesh Ambani, who was listed the 5th richest man in the world in 2008 after Buffett, Carlos Slim Helu, Bill Gates and Lakshmi Mittal, is now in the midst of constructing the world’s largest and most expensive house in Mumbai, India.

The 27-storey house, which is expected to be completed in January 2009, will cost a staggering $2 billion. Once finished, the gigantic building will offer a total interior space of over 400,000 feet, more than 100 times an average-size bungalow house does.

Called the Antillia, the high-rise home will come with expensive and most luxurious facilities that include 6-storey parking lots, 4-storey garden, nine elevators, crystal covered ballroom, state-of-the-art health center, ice room, and glorious entertaining space.

The architects and designers, who are team members behind the Mandarin Oriental hotels, design and build the house as they go, and making alteration to the creation as the building is constructed.

London-based Mukesh is the chief of India’s largest company by market capitalization, Reliance Industries, which was founded by his late father, Dhirubhai Ambani some 40 years ago.

Reliance has major interest in oil, petrochemicals and other diversified operations. Forbes estimated Mukesh to have a net worth of over $40 billion.

Currently, the most expensive home is located in France, owned by Chelsea Football Club owner, Roman Abramovich. Roman purchased the house, called La Leopolda villa for a price of $500 million, not more than a month ago, 4 times less the cost of Mukesh’s house.

On average, a Specialized Surgeon in Singapore takes home a gross monthly salary of $25,930 per monthly.

This is followed by Managing Director ($18,317), General Surgeon ($14,627), Commodities Futures Broker ($14,441), General Manager ($14,120), Company Director ($12,388), Legal Service Manager ($10,293), Creative Director ($9,690), Operations Manager - Finance ($9,508) and Foreign Exchange Dealer ($9,200).

Chemical Engineer, on the hand, is the highest paid engineering job with $6,295, and is the only job in the engineering field (executive level) that makes it to the list of 30 best paid positions in the country.

Following is the table of the position against the mean (average) gross monthly salary for each of the job. Bonuses, share options, revenue sharing and other monetary benefits are not included in the data calculation.

The salary report was produced and published by the Ministry of Manpower Singapore, which is also an annual publication.

The study will be launched and powered by Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm specializing in the human resource management, organizational development, talent acquisition, investment and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI), The Edge and The Edge Financial Daily will partner up with Hewitt in the study.

The last of similar research done was back in 2005, where Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur came out top of the table, followed by Dumex and SP Setia.

3 main criteria taken into the consideration for the research are employee engagement, organizational alignment, and sustainability. The first element, engagement, assesses the employer’s ability to leave a positive impression and impact to the employees, which in turn attracts new potential employees and customers.

In organizational alignment, highlights will be focused on the capability of a company to streamline their workforce and the development of the organization, in line with the business objective of the business. The last criteria, sustainability, measures how well the company can sustain the employee engagement in the long run.

Other additional factors will include gender diversity, culture and the employer’s approach in handling part time and casual workers.

Companies interested to participate in the research can email Hewitt at bestemployersmalaysia@hewitt.com.

Announcement of the Malaysia’s Best Employers Awards 2009 winners will be announced early of 2009.