Buying anything in Russia - from a mobile phone to a new Mercedes - is likely to hit your wallet harder than buying the same product in Western Europe would. Russians have become accustomed to paying top ruble for most products and when it comes to attracting top executives, the rules are no different; a recent survey has found that the board of directors of a Russian company costs, on average, 15 percent more than the board of a western firm operating in Russia.

The study, conducted by Antal International Russia limited, analyzed the salaries offered for more than 200 vacancies in Russia in the last six months as well as the salary expectations of 500 high-caliber candidates. It found that Russian companies offered more money than their western rivals for the same positions across all the sectors studied.

The highest average salaries, in both western and Russian firms, were garnered by executives in the retail sector, but the salaries offered to the CEOs of Russian firms were around $5,000 per month higher than the salaries offered by western firms. Russian business development directors in this sector took home $8,000 more than their counterparts working for multinationals and human resources directors earned $4,000 more.

The second highest salaries were in the oil and gas sector where both the CEO and the financial director of a Russian firm can expect a salary of $24,000 per month. CEOs working for multinationals could expect a similar wage but financial directors receive just $18,000.

The only position in any of the sectors studied where more money was offered by western firms than their Russian rivals was for IT directors in B2B companies; those employed by western companies earned around $500 more per month than those working in Russian companies.

Russian firms have made great strides in recent years in achieving transparency in their payments to employees, making reliable salary comparisons possible. This move has been driven in part by the job market as the official salary is becoming an increasingly important factor to candidates when choosing an employer:

"More and more people are taking out bank loans, and it is the official salary that banks look at when assessing a person's credit rating," says Luc Jones, Partner at Antal International Russia Recruitment Company.

"I have noticed many more candidates rejecting offers made by companies who pay grey salaries (failing to declare the full income for tax purposes) over the last 5 years."

At present the Russian job market heavily favors job seekers as companies clamor to employ qualified and experienced executives. Big Russian players regularly pay large premiums to western experienced managers and are generally more flexible about paying whatever it takes to get the right person on board;

"Sometimes the number of specialists with specific experience may be counted on one hand," Jones explains.

But although western firms fail to offer the highest salaries, they tend to offer employees substantial non-financial benefits such as a more structured environment, stable and continuous career development and better support infrastructure. The advice offered by Antal is for employees to consider what their marketability will be beyond the next four years; quick money can sometimes be at the expense of a more sensible longer term career move.