The publication of Carlos Tavares’s autobiography and the glorification of his achievements provide Franck Aggeri with an opportunity, in his column in *Alternatives économiques* on January 23, 2026, to address the astronomical salaries of corporate executives. Autobiography is a literary genre favored by political and business leaders. The latest example is Un pilote dans la tempête (A Pilot in the Storm). The incredible journey of one of the world’s greatest automotive executives (Plon, 2025), written by Carlos Tavares, former CEO of Stellantis (a merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA). It was a risky endeavor, as the group is currently in turmoil with sharply declining market share and repeated scandals (defective airbags and combustion engines) and a dramatic drop in its share price (-60% in two years).
The book has two objectives: firstly, to give a human dimension to the author’s career in the automotive industry—first at Renault, then at PSA, and finally at Stellantis—and to his passion for cars and motor racing; and secondly, to rehabilitate his work as a great captain of industry. Confident in himself and his track record, he reflects on the substantial remuneration he received during his brief three-year tenure at the helm of Stellantis, considering it entirely justified in light of the exceptional financial performance achieved by the group under his leadership.
It should be noted that upon his arrival, he received €66 million, including €47 million in the form of free shares, and that eight months before he was dismissed, the board of directors voted in April 2024 to award him €36.5 million in compensation, an amount never before seen for a French company executive.
Sky-high salaries
The Tavares case is just one example of a more widespread phenomenon: the continuing explosion in executive pay at large companies and the staggering widening of the gap between executives and employees. In France, the average compensation of CAC 40 CEOs reached €6.5 million in 2024, or 82 times the average compensation of CAC 40 employees. In France, the average remuneration of CAC 40 CEOs reached €6.5 million in 2024, which is 82 times the average remuneration of CAC 40 employees. In the United States, the gap is even wider: in 2024, executives at the country’s 500 largest companies earned an average of €16.5 million, or 196 times the median salary at their companies, whereas in 1965 the gap was only 1 to 20.
Before 2013, remuneration was not always disclosed to the public in France. The change came with the adoption of the Afep-Medef code of good governance, which, in the name of transparency, recommended a consultative vote by shareholders on executive compensation, known as “say on pay,” inspired by practices in the Anglo-Saxon world. Most CAC 40 companies then signed up to this code. This provision became mandatory in 2017 with the Sapin II law on transparency and modernization of economic life.
However, according to Le Figaro, the remuneration of CAC 40 executives amounted to €2.25 million in 2013. This means that it has almost tripled in just over a decade.
We remember the controversy sparked in 1989 when Le Canard enchaîné published the tax return of Jacques Calvet, then CEO of PSA. His salary that year amounted to 2.2 million francs (the equivalent of €600,000 today), causing a public outcry as it was 30 times the salary of a worker at the time! However, this sum is ten times lower than those paid today in the CAC 40 and a hundred times lower than that received by Carlos Tavares in 2021.