The effort was short-lived. The bosses of large French companies, many of whom had agreed to reductions in their fixed salary or their incentive in 2020 out of solidarity in a time of health crisis, should see their remuneration rise sharply in 2021.
According to the count made by The weekly GA, expert in best practices in governance, the CEOs and other CEOs of the CAC 40 could be allocated 5.3 million euros on average: this is 1.5 million more than the 3.8 million allocated in 2020 and 500,000 euros more than the 4.8 million in 2019. For their part, the senior executives of the Next 80 (that is to say the 80 companies of the SBF 120 which do not appear in the CAC 40) benefit an even sharper increase: they were allocated by their board of directors an envelope of 3.2 million euros, compared to 1.9 million in 2020 and 2.2 million in 2019.
These remunerations mentioned for 2021 correspond to the “target” envelopes voted by the general meeting of shareholders, between April and June, generally comprising three elements: a fixed salary, a variable remuneration as well as a long-term incentive scheme. “In theory, business leaders are not sure if they hit this target. But in fact, what is paid in fine turns out to be very close ”, underlines Bénédicte Hautefort, editor of L’Hebdo des GA. “The packages adopted at recent general meetings reflect the companies’ renewed confidence in their strategic plan”, adds Jean de Calbiac, partner of Avanty Avocats.
New benchmarks for measuring performance
The subject is scrutinized not only by public opinion, unions and politicians but also by shareholders. “The resolutions on the remuneration of executive officers or directors are the most contested in general meetings. Much more than the appropriation of the result or the dividend ”, warns Augustin Vincent, head of ESG research (Environment, social, governance) at Mandarine Gestion. During the AGM of April 22, the “package” for 2020 of Daniel Julien, CEO of Teleperformance, the world’s number one call center, aroused strong opposition (nearly 40%).
For the financial community, the Holy Grail has long been the alignment of interests between bosses and shareholders
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