Carlos Tavares’ ‘shocking’ salary is just the tip of the iceberg

Decryption In the 40 largest French companies, the boss receives on average 130 times the average salary of his employees. The prize goes to Teleperformance, where this ratio climbs to 1,453 times, followed by Carrefour, at 426 times.

“ I don’t even see what we can do with 36 million euros. […] These are disproportionate, stratospheric and obviously shocking sums », was moved by Gabriel Attal on BFM-TV on April 18. The Prime Minister was reacting to the validation, by the shareholders of the Stellantis group (born from the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler), of the remuneration of their manager, Carlos Tavares, estimated at 36.5 million euros for the year 2023 alone. . His salary had already been judged “. shocking » by Emmanuel Macron. And Tavares defies them:

“ If you think this is not acceptable, make a law and I will respect it… »

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If the government pleads for taxation of (very) high incomes on an international scale, the idea of ​​limiting the surge “ shocking » of the remuneration of big bosses remains unanswered for the moment. Except that it induces an insane gap between business leaders, however strategic they may be, and their own employees, who remain the workforce at the origin of the value generated.

The Oxfam association is looking, this Tuesday, April 30, at the jackpots received by the CAC 40 magnates, the forty largest French companies. Result: the bosses have, on average, pocketed 130 times more than their flock.

“Bompard earns the average annual salary of Carrefour employees in 9 hours”

On the podium for the abysmal difference, we find the call center giant Teleperformance, whose CEO Daniel Julien earned 1,453 times more than the average salary in the multinational in 2022.

Followed by Alexandre Bompard, boss of Carrefour, who pocketed 426 times more than the average salary of his company, then Carlos Tavares, who received 341 times more than the average salary of Stellantis. “I don’t know if we realize, but Alexandre Bompard earns in just 9 hours the equivalent of the average annual salary of Carrefour employees,” denounces Léa Guérin, advocacy officer on multinational regulation issues at Oxfam.

We note that this large gap falls when we only consider the fixed remuneration of the bosses: the big bosses then earn on average 24 times the average salary of their employees. And for good reason: the fixed part represents less than a third (27%) of executive remuneration, with them receiving the jackpot in variables (very often indexed to financial results) and in shares. Hence the care given to shareholders by the CAC 40: in 2022, these companies have returned on average three quarters of their profits to their shareholders, rather than reinvesting them or allocating them to employees…

“ As long as CEOs are encouraged to choose shareholder satisfaction rather than employees or the environment, we will not be able to initiate a real social and ecological transformation.comments Léa Guérin again. It is time for business to benefit everyone and not just a few. »

27% increase for bosses

Incidentally, the Oxfam study highlights another surprising gap: between 2019 and 2022, the average compensation of CAC 40 CEOs increased by 27% when the average salary within their companies only increased by 9 % – over these four years, cumulative inflation stands at 8.65%.

Which solution ? Limit the gap between the boss and his employees to a ratio of 1 to 20, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then La France Insoumise candidate in the presidential election, demanded in 2017? For the moment, no CAC 40 group is sticking to it. Crédit Agricole, Eurofins Scientific, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Orange barely remain below the threshold of a difference of 1 to 30.

Pay employees better, as promised by Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux, who will set up a “ decent salary [qui] represents between 1.5 times and 3 times the minimum wage » ? Not enough at Michelin: the boss received 2.8 million euros in 2022, or 50 times more than the average remuneration in his company.

Or even make – finally – the variable parts of remuneration play their role? Shareholders would be well advised to look closely at the sacrosanct stock price to judge the effectiveness of their boss. As evidenced by Teleperformance, the red lantern of the CAC 40, which saw its action collapse by 43% in 2022, which did not prevent CEO Daniel Julien from pocketing 2.5 million euros in variable and 14, 7 million euros of (poorly named) performance shares.

You said ” shocking » ?