Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, is known for his competitive nature and preference for being at the top of rankings. In 2023, his group secured the second position in earnings with €18.6 billion in net income, between Total and LVMH. His compensation has followed suit. For 2023, the company's annual report states that he earned €36.5 million, including deferred compensation. This amount has the potential to put him at the top of the rankings of the French CAC40 stock market index.
If we refer to the Stellantis financial report, this compensation for 2023 can be compared with €23.5 million for 2022 and €19 million for 2021. In the same year, shareholder advisory firm Proxinvest calculated, using a different methodology, that the figure was closer to €66 million. This higher figure includes deferred payments, particularly in shares, which are subject to various conditions over time.
Based on Stellantis' calculation method, Tavares' salary increased by 55%. Per working day, he earns as much as the average Stellantis employee does over the course of an entire year. In fact, according to the annual report, the CEO earned more than 518 times as much as the average employee of €70,404. This gap is widening. In 2022, the CEO made 365 times as much as the average compensation of €64,328, and in 2021, the difference was 298 times the average salary of €58,475.
Preempting a possible controversy over how profits are distributed within the group, the automaker's HR director Xavier Chéreau took the time just after the presentation of 2023 profits to explain that €1.9 billion would be redistributed to employees in the form of profit-sharing schemes, incentives and bonuses linked to individual and collective performance.
For French employees, formerly working for Peugeot or Citroën, this would represent a bonus ranging from €4,100 to €6,000. This is down from the previous year when bonuses ranged from €4,300 to €6,100. These schemes depend "on Stellantis' economic performance and on regional and local criteria, negotiated each year with [workers' representatives]. They are therefore not strictly proportional to overall financial results," said the company, whose spokesperson added that "For the third year running, this amount corresponds to more than 2.5 times the net minimum wage, and complements the 4.3% salary increase decided on in December 2023, 3.6% of which was applied from January onwards. Added to that is the first employee share purchase plan, launched at the end of 2023 in France [€1,000 in matched contributions and 20% discount]."
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