London, Aug 15 : The salary of Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard after the new five year contract is equal to 340 staff factory whose employee will be at their posts, grafting hard to earn enough money to pay their food and fuel bills, with little left over for extras.

And at the end of the week the factory's entire wage bill for all those 340 workers will be roughly the same as Chelsea will now be paying one man - Frank Lampard - for his week's work.

The England midfielder is just one of many Premier League stars who earn more in seven days than a soldier or a secretary can earn in seven years, The Sun reported.

But his new 39.2million pounds five-year deal, giving him an eye-watering 151,000 pounds-a-week, is the latest illustration of how far removed today's soccer stars are from the ordinary fans who watch them every season.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said yesterday: "If you take the average wage of 450 pounds-a-week, or 23,400 pounds a year, we calculate a firm would need 340 staff to incur a wage bill to match what Lampard is being paid.

"Even a firm paying a range of salaries, from average to higher, would probably employ around 150 people to have a wage bill like that," he added.

It is not just factories, which would have to be pretty big to have a wage bill to compare with Lampard's.

An average call centre could employ more than 500 staff for a week for what it costs Chelsea to have Lamps on their books for the same time.

A prison with 500 inmates could employ the 300-plus prison officers needed to staff it at around 150,000 pounds a week.

And a busy hospital department could employ more than 300 nurses for a week for the cost of a couple of hours of Lampard from any one of a number of the Premier League players pocketing mega pay packets.

The Army could afford to take on 500 rank-and-file soldiers. And if 400 building site labourers paid for seven days of Lampard's skills out of their wages, they would only have enough left to buy a cup of tea.

Alambritis added: "It is incredible. Some of these figures are truly jaw-dropping. It is shocking to realise that some of these footballers can buy a drink from a barman who earns in a year what they get paid in a day, and you wonder how divisive that is for society."

ANI