Simon Cowell has hit out at people who claimed that X Factor contestants are paid a pittance for taking part in the UK wide XF tour.

The Mirror recently reported that all contestants will be taxed on their income and have to pay up to 20% to their managers so the JLS boys will make from just £100 per show and Daniel Evans will make around £250.

However in an interview with the Daily Mail Cowell insisted that each act makes substantially more than the figures that were reported.

“It is not slave labour. I won’t go into precise figures because that is confidential, but these people will earn around about £50,000 each on the X Factor tour,” Cowell told the newspaper.

“For any kid who wants to get into the music business and who hasn’t got a recording contract – well, it is a good deal. To put them in front of 16 million television viewers over a period of time and then pay them £50,000 for three months’ work? That is not a bad deal.”

The music mogul added that Britain’s Got Talent winners fare just as well financially, explaining: “Paul Potts was working as a mobile phone salesman on eight or nine grand a year, and has now, I am guessing, made in the region of £3 million to £4 million. He sold three million albums in the first year.

“As for George Sampson, I am estimating his earnings will hit at least £250,000 to £300,000 in the first year.”