TotalEnergies will offer to increase Pouyanné’s salary by 10%

BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

Patrick Pouyanné, here speaking during a hearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly in Paris, November 9, 2022.

TOTALENERGIES – A new controversy to come for the CEO of TotalEnergies? The group’s board of directors indicated on Thursday March 16 that it would propose at the general meeting of shareholders on May 26 a 10% increase in the remuneration of Patrick Pouyanné, under fire from critics last year for his salary statements.

Council will submit a motion that “the compensation and the allocation of performance shares for 2023 are proposed to be increased by 10% compared to 2022”according to a press release from the group on the convening of this general meeting.

What’s next after this ad

It’s about a “rise equivalent to that enjoyed on average by managers of the common social base in France”the group said.

The increase comes from the increase in the number of shares allocated to the CEO, the fixed remuneration of 1.5 million euros and the variable one not changing, said a source at TotalEnergies.

51.7% increase in 2021

In 2021, Patrick 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.

What’s next after this ad

This increase followed a 36.4% drop in his compensation in 2020, the result of a salary cut presented at the time as ” deliberate “ during the health crisis, and the decline in the variable part of his salary that year linked to the group’s 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 is not me who sets my compensation, but the Board of Directors of TotalEnergies which sets it and the shareholders who approve it – it is certainly high, but comparable to my peers in the CAC40 and much lower than that of the other european majors[ne]s and american[e]s” of the petrochemical sector, then defended the CEO on Twitter.

See also on The HuffPost :