Salary of big bosses: “Me too, it shocks me”, says Emmanuel Macron

“Me too it shocks me”. Questioned on the question of the remuneration of certain big bosses, on the sidelines ofa trip to the Doubs, this Thursday, April 27, Emmanuel Macron said he was “shocked” by the salaries of major CEOs. “When the (salary) differences reach these proportions, you can no longer explain it to people,” said the president, believing that “these are people who are disconnected”.

“It shocks everyone, me too, it shocks me,” he replied to a man, who sought his opinion on this issue, and asked him about what could be done “in a state of law” to regulate the compensation of certain executives.

The Head of State began by emphasizing that the State opposed, in the companies it owns, the payment of excessive wages. “We, when we are in the capital, we vote against it,” he said, adding that “the bosses, in the public sector, are limited in their remuneration”. In private groups, on the other hand, “you cannot replace the shareholders”, affirmed the president, ***uring that “it is not the State which can (limit the remuneration of the leaders)”. “What can you do?” You tax them more,” he said, however.

“The state could”

These remarks did not fail to make the left react, while several parties, including France insoumise (LFI) or the Socialist Party (PS), have been proposing to limit the wage gaps within companies for a certain number of years. years. “More than five years that we have made these proposals to the Government… More than five years that they refuse everything”, thus commented, on Twitter, the socialist deputy Boris Vallaud, citing measures such as the limitation of the maximum difference in remuneration in companies “from 1 to 20”, the taxation of “superprofits”, or the return of the Wealth Tax (ISF) – abolished during the first five-year term of Emmanuel Macron.

“Yes, the state, and its leader, could (limit the income of the big bosses)”, also reacted on Twitter the rebellious deputy of the Somme, François Ruffin. “The truth: he doesn’t want to”.

The remuneration of big bosses regularly fuels controversy in France. In April 2021, a controversy followed in particular the publication of the salary paid to Carlos Tavaresthe leader of the automobile group Stellantis (two million euros a year, to which was added a variable remuneration of more than 7.5 million, as revealed by one of the group’s minority shareholders, who opposed this income level).