How could it have been otherwise? The lowest paid boss among the top 120 listed French companies is… a woman. Stéphane Pallez, CEO of Française des jeux (FDJ), won this prize with 380,000 euros due for the year 2020, according to the report on the remuneration of the directors of the SBF 120 index published on Wednesday 10 November by the consulting company Proxinvest.
Like all public company bosses, Mr.me Pallez is bound by the limit of 450,000 euros set by the State. In addition, at the start of the pandemic, she made a donation corresponding to one month of her fixed salary on behalf of the “Solidarity”. She’s not the only one. During a year 2020 marked by the health crisis, partial unemployment, and State aid, 58% of companies, according to Proxinvest, have thus reduced the remuneration of their corporate officers, either voluntarily or because the objectives which condition the bonuses n ‘have not been achieved; 6% of groups also deferred planned wage increases.
As a result, the average total compensation of the SBF 120 bosses for 2020, namely fixed salary, variable portion, performance shares and other benefits in kind, marks a historic drop of 14%, to reach 3.2 million euros. : even during the financial crisis of 2008, such an adjustment had not taken place.
More spectacularly, the annual bonuses of the SBF 120 bosses have plunged by 27%
“We are back to levels observed in 2014-2015”, notes Loïc Dessaint, CEO of Proxinvest. For the multinationals of the CAC 40, the average decrease is a little less marked: the CEO, managing director or manager of a company of the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange will have obtained on average a total compensation of 4.6 million d ‘euros, down 11%.
More spectacularly, the annual bonuses of the SBF 120 bosses plunged by 27%. “We had never seen a drop of such magnitude from one year to the next”, underlines Mr. Dessaint. Fifteen of the 120 did not benefit from any bonus in 2020. Some voluntarily like François-Henri Pinault (Kering) and Benjamin Smith (Air-France KLM) who had announced at the start of the epidemic that they waived any variable compensation.
“The fall in bonuses would have been even higher if companies had applied the calculation criteria they had defined before the pandemic”, continues the director general of the polling agency. Many companies, in fact, have asked their shareholders to review their compensation policy along the way so that they can still reward their management teams, especially when the poor performance of 2020 prevented the success of three-year plans. “What shocked us the most was when Accor and Pierre & Vacances changed the rules of the game without even asking the general meeting”.
Not all the big bosses tightened their belts
But not all of the big bosses have tightened their belts. Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour, was allocated the highest variable compensation of the SBF 120 for 2020, i.e. a budget of 2.5 million euros. Daniel Julien, CEO of Teleperformance, was awarded the largest increase, with a “Package” € 17 million, almost 4 million more than in 2019.
The boss of the call center giant is, however, not the best paid in the market: in 2020, like the previous year, it is Bernard Charlès, the CEO of Dassault Systèmes, who climbs on the first step of the podium, with remuneration of 20.6 million euros, 4 million less than in 2019: the manager benefits, according to the annual report, from a “Progressive association with the capital aiming, in the long term, to give it a participation in the capital in line with that of its peers in technology companies around the world”. Note that if Dassault Systèmes and Teleperformance have achieved very good stock market results since the mini-crash of March 2020, this was also the case for the FDJ …
For the rest, there is little suspense: the fall in salaries seen in 2020 will not last. “There will be a form of catching up”, warns Mr. Dessaint. In particular, even if the high “packages” are more and more contested in general meetings, many companies such as Vivendi or Essilor Luxottica have already voted at the 2021 general meetings to increase fixed salaries for their managers. .