The NGO Oxfam has published a report on the salaries of CEOs of CAC 40 companies and has made available a calculator to compare their salaries to those of wealthy bosses.
The salaries of CEOs of the CAC 40, the main stock market index of the Paris Stock Exchange, are always more impressive. In 2022, according to a report by the NGO Oxfam unveiled this Tuesday April 30 and entitled Cash 40: too many millions for a few men, these big bosses have earned on average 130 times more than their employees. A figure which has increased since 2019 when the latter already earned 111 times more than their employees. Over these three years, the remuneration of the CEOs of the 40 major companies on the Paris Stock Exchange increased by 27% according to the report, compared to an average salary within these groups which "only increased by 9%".
Oxfam denounces remuneration having reached “stratospheric levels”. The organization points out that it is nevertheless “employees who create the wealth of CAC 40 companies”. And added: “It is therefore unacceptable to see CEOs earning 130, 500 or even almost 1,500 times more than their employees.” The organization points to a “double-speed system.” The report also highlights the growing weight of shareholders who were paid 75% of profits.
Oxfam then established a ranking of the companies where the gaps were the most obvious. In first position on the “podium of indecency” is Téléperformance in which the CEO earned 1,453 times more than the average salary in the company thanks to his 19.7 million euros. Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour, is ahead of him with 426 times more income than the group's average salary. “Alexandre Bompard earns in just 9 hours the equivalent of the average annual salary of Carrefour employees,” summarizes Léa Guérin, advocacy officer on issues of regulation of multinationals, as reported by 20 Minutes. The podium closes with Stellantis and Carlos Tavares who earns 341 times more than the average salary of his company. These huge differences are often explained by relatively low average salaries. The leaders defended themselves by saying that Oxfam's calculations did not correspond to reality.
The organization has made available a calculator that allows you to compare your income to that of big bosses. For this test, simply enter your annual gross salary and your monthly net salary to find out how long it took these CEOs to already reach this annual salary, and sometimes it's a matter of hours. Using data from 2022, the average salary in France was 2,630 euros net per month, or 39,800 gross annually. The CEO of Téléperformance then earned 495 times this remuneration per year, which represents only 8 hours of work for him.
Oxfam then denounces “a lack of regulation of executive remuneration”. The NGO calls for guaranteeing “a maximum gap of 1 to 20 between the median salary in the company and that of the manager”. This also involves a “decent salary across the entire value chain” as well as efforts to reduce salary inequalities between the sexes, especially since there are very few women among the highest paid employees of CAC 40 companies. .
