Cie Automotive, an industrial group that specializes in high-value processes, has been at the center of attention for its extraordinary remuneration. Their CEO, Jesus Maria Herrera, earned 23.77 million euros in the 2023 financial year, making him the highest paid executive among all companies listed on the Spanish stock market. Despite this, wage inequality remains prevalent in many companies both Spanish and foreign.
The income gap between executives and employees has barely corrected in recent years as seen in the data from the twelfth edition of the remuneration report prepared by EL PAÍS with data from the companies listed on the stock market. The highest paid executive directors of the Ibex 35 earned an average of 4.71 million euros in 2023, a staggering 77.6 times more than the average salary of their employees they manage.
Following Cie Automotive is Indra, Inditex, Banco Santander and Sacyr. The trend of increasing executive salaries, particularly among senior management, has been observed in the market. However, despite efforts to increase female representation in large listed companies’ boardrooms, most still have independent or proprietary roles rather than executive positions.
The issue of compensation schemes and director remuneration continues to be a topic of discussion with many companies still heavily weighting cash payments in their salary plans while pension contributions for executives have become more common with significant amounts allocated for retirement funds. The practice of golden parachutes for executives with armored contracts is also prevalent on the stock market.
Repsol has been criticized for having a large number of executives protected under its corporate governance report with 217 beneficiaries followed by BBVA, Grifols, Dia and Caixabank among others. Despite efforts to limit shielding and excessive compensation practices continue to remain a subject of debate around executive compensation and termination payments.
