Macron wants cap on ‘shocking and excessive’ executive pay

theguardian.com:

Emmanuel Macron will push for a cap on excessive executive pay should he be re-elected president after he described as “shocking and excessive” the €19m (£15.7m) pay packet handed to the head of carmaker Stellantis.

Macron, who is campaigning in the run-up to the final vote for the French presidency on 24 April against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, told France Info radio that he was in favour of an EU-wide ceiling for top executives’ pay.

The multimillion-pound payout handed last year to chief executive Carlos Tavares, when French carmaker PSA merged with Italian-US rival Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis, one of the world’s largest carmakers, has emerged as a prominent issue in the election.

Macron and Le Pen are attempting to woo the 7.7 million people who voted in the first round for left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has described the final run-off as “a choice between two evils”.

A recent poll for France 24 showed 34% of Melenchon voters saying they would back Macron against 30% for Le Pen, while 36% were undecided.

“We need to fight at a European level so that remuneration can’t be excessive,” Macron said. “We need to set ceilings and have governance for Europe that make these things acceptable. If not, society will explode at any given moment.

“People can’t be facing purchasing power problems … and then see these sorts of sums.”

Beyond his base salary of €2m, Tavares is to receive €7.5m in performance-based pay, €2.4m in retirement contributions and a €1.7m bonus related to the success of the merger. In addition, he will also receive €5.6m-worth of company shares, according to Stellantis.

In 2017, PSA chief Tavares acquired the European operations of General Motors, giving it control of several plants,