The bosses of the companies making up the CAC 40 index saw their average compensation drop by 10% in 2019, in particular due to an 8% drop in annual bonuses, according to a report published on Wednesday by the firm Proxinvest.
Read also: How the Covid-19 transformed the face of the CAC 40
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The average total compensation in the CAC 40 fell by 10% (-7.4% at constant sample), but remains the second highest average over 10 years
", at 5.18 million euros, writes Proxinvest in its report.
For the first time since 2014, average employee compensation increased (+ 5.8%) while average executive compensation fell.
Reductions and waivers of the Covid-19 bonus
The firm that issues voting recommendations to shareholders for general meetings has counted eight cases of reduction and three cases of waiver of the annual bonus for 2019, announced during the Covid-19 crisis.
The first concerns the IT giant Atos, where Thierry Breton left his position as CEO last year to become European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Digital.
The second concerns EssilorLuxottica due to financial fraud at one of its factories in Thailand and the third Sanofi, where shareholders have vetoed the 2019 compensation of former CEO Olivier Brandicourt.
Among the other reasons explaining this marked drop in average total compensation in the CAC 40, Proxinvest also mentions “
the departure of Carlos Ghosn
”, ex-number one of Renault-Nissan who appeared in the compensation ranking for 2018, as well as as the fall in compensation in shares.
The remuneration of number one executives includes a fixed, variable and shareholder part.
"
The 2.7% increase in fixed remuneration within the CAC 40 is far too rapid compared to the average inflation for 2019 of 1.1%
", estimates Proxinvest.
As a reminder, the average compensation of the CEOs of CAC 40 companies increased by 12% in 2018 to 5.77 million euros.