A consulting firm publishes the remuneration of top executives of French companies. Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, born from the merger of the PSA and Fiat-Chrysler groups, tops this ranking, with more than 60 million euros annually. What to do to react within the factories of Franche-Comté, in Sochaux as in Vesoul.
It is a performance of which we do not know if Carlos Tavares will boast.
The boss of the automobile group Stellantis is the best paid of all the leaders of the CAC 40, the main index of the Paris Stock Exchange.
the shareholder advisory firm Proxinvest estimated the remuneration of the Portuguese entrepreneur at 66.7 million euros. Carlos Tavares is ahead in this ranking of Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systèmes (€44.1 million) and Daniel Julien, Chairman and CEO of Teleperformance (€19.6 million).
According to Proxinvest, Carlos Tavarès’ compensation breaks down as follows:
€1986290 base salary
€7,516,000 annual bonus
€32,144,190 from four equity compensation plans
€25,000,000 from the long-term cash compensation plan
4038€ of benefits in kind
According to the Stellantis group, Carlos Tavares’ remuneration is “only” €19,153,507. Proxinvest specifies that “the main difference relates to the valuation of free share plans”, not taken into account by the group.
The company has put in place various long-term compensation instruments, some of which are not subject to performance conditions, similar to the practices of American companies.
Proxinvest law firm
Proxinvest had also advised shareholders not to validate this amount of remuneration at the general meeting of Stellantis in April 2022. The resolution had been rejected, but the company being under Dutch and not French law, the shareholders’ vote did not had no impact.
The Proxinvest report also notes that “this is the first time in 15 years that a company has presented total compensation of more than 50 million euros”.
The crisis is not for everyone.
Jérôme Boussard, General Secretary CGT PSA in Sochaux
Unsurprisingly, the announcement of the big boss’s record pay raises some teeth on the assembly lines. “An employee like the others, really?” Says the secretary general of the CGT in Sochaux (Doubs), Jérôme Boussard, with a smile. We suspected that he was going to sweeten up, now since there is money, we are asking at least 400 euros for everyone.
Because the publicity of the amount of Carlos Tavares’ remuneration comes at the right time for the unions, invited by their management on December 1 for the NAO, these compulsory annual negotiations where there will necessarily be a lot of talk about salaries.
“We will at least have to cover inflation”, warns Jean-Paul Guy, CFTC delegate on the Vesoul site, for whom “it is of course shocking to have remuneration at this height”.
He does the job to keep the company afloat (…) We have never received so much profit-sharing.
Eric Peultier, General Secretary FO at Stellantis Sochaux
Eric Peultier, General Secretary Force Ouvrière Métaux at Stellantis Sochaux, wants to remember that “Carlos Tavares’ industrial policy is working, he is doing the job to keep the company afloat”. Moreover, “we have never received so much profit-sharing”, recognizes the FO delegate.
Still, like his fellow union representatives, he claims “a better distribution of what goes into society”.
Stellantis is not the only company to have markedly increased its boss. Proxinvest notes that the average total compensation of the bosses of the CAC 40 index has increased by 52%, unheard of for fifteen years.
It is also “the first time in eight years that the average compensation of CAC 40 managers represents more than 100 times the average compensation of employees”, or 369 times the minimum wage on a 39-hour basis, again according to the Proxinvest report.