The board of directors of TotalEnergies announced Thursday, March 16 that it would propose a 10% increase in the remuneration of its CEO. At the general meeting of shareholders to be held on May 26, the board will submit a motion providing that "the compensation and the allocation of performance shares for 2023 are proposed to be increased by 10% compared to 2022". , gives a press release on the convening of this general meeting.
The group specifies that this is an "increase equivalent to that enjoyed on average by executives of the common social base in France". The increase comes from the increase in the number of shares allocated to the CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, the fixed remuneration of 1.5 million euros and the variable one not changing, said a source at TotalEnergies.
"I don't set my compensation"
In 2021, Mr. Pouyanné's remuneration had increased by 51.7%, to 5,944,129 euros - an amount at the heart of a controversy in the fall in the midst of a wage dispute in the group's refineries. This increase followed a 36.4% drop in his compensation in 2020, the result of a salary cut then presented as "voluntary" during the health crisis, and the decline in the variable part of his salary that year linked group results.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic, it amounted to 6.15 million euros, while the total salary for 2022 has not yet been published. "It's not me who sets my compensation, but the board of directors of TotalEnergies who set it and the shareholders who approve it - it is certainly high, but comparable to my CAC40 peers and much lower than that of the other European and American majors" in the petrochemical sector, Mr. Pouyanné defended himself on Twitter.
