Carlos Tavares’ remuneration will reach up to 36.5 million euros for 2023, a salary deemed “scandalous” by the unions

The car manufacturer’s boss’s income increased by 56% in one year.

This risks reviving the controversy over bosses’ salaries. The remuneration of Carlos Tavares, boss of the car manufacturer Stellantis, could ultimately reach 36.5 million euros for the year 2023. Which represents an increase of 56% over one year. This increase is notably linked to the payment of a bonus of 10 million euros for the “transformation” of the group created in 2021, details the management of Stellantis in its financial report, made public Friday February 23.

Carlos Tavares’ remuneration includes retirement pensions which will be paid over the long term, but also bonuses awarded only if he meets the objectives set for 2025, the last year of his mandate at the head of the manufacturer.

For the 2023 financial year, Carlos Tavares will initially receive 23.5 million euros, underlined a Stellantis spokesperson. Paid largely in shares, this remuneration also increases with the value of the group’s stock, which has almost doubled since its creation in 2021 by the merger of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler.

A salary deemed “scandalous” by the unions

Ranking among the highest paid bosses in the CAC 40, the general director of the world’s fourth largest automobile group had already attracted the wrath of Emmanuel Macron in 2022, who had judged “shocking and excessive” the amount “astronomical” of his remuneration. Stellantis argues in its report that this remuneration should rather be compared with that of multinationals such as Boeing in the United States or Volkswagen in Europe. The group makes the majority of its sales on the Old Continent, but draws most of its profits from the American market.

“It’s unfair, it’s shocking, scandalous what Tavares is going to get!” reported to France 3 Jérôme Boussard, CGT representative at the Sochaux factory (Doubs). When we know that a dubbing worker (day/night) earns around 1,400 euros...“

In the ranks of the CFDT in Sochaux, the figures are also dizzying: 36.5 million euros divided by 365 days, this gives an average of 100,000 euros per day. “Tavares continues on its momentum. He is not changing his tune. It is a global policy of the group, employees in France do not weigh much”, regrets Benoit Vernier, elected CFDT.

This remuneration will be submitted to a (non-binding) vote by the group’s shareholders at their general meeting on April 16. Shareholders rejected it for the 2021 financial year before validating it for 2022, after clarification efforts on the part of the manufacturer.