French bosses: they earn (sometimes) millions?

Through annual group reports (excluding the advantages such as stock options), the daily newspaper “Les Echos” has made the classification of French bosses according to their salaries. The first on the list and far ahead is Jean-Marie Messier, boss of Vivendi Universal, with a gross salary of 28 million francs per year. Second, Serge Tchuruk, Alcatel’s CEO (17.5 MF); third, Daniel Bouton of the Société générale (16.1 MF). Behind this trio ahead, Alain Joly of Air Liquide is the fourth one with 13.4 MF annually, then Jean-Louis Beffa of Saint-Gobain (12,5 MF). The last of a list of eleven French bosses is Michel Bon of France Telecom with 2.4 MF. All these salaries are obviously far from the amount of the SMIC (French minimum wage).

However, it is also far from what the best-paid bosses of the big British groups earn. Jean-Marie Messier, then isn’t equal to Sanford Weill, Citigroup’s CEO. The first one of the same classification in the United States earns five times more than J6M, whereas its counterpart of AOL-Time Warner, Gerald Levin (5th on the American classification) earns three times more. Moreover, the stock options are not included. It is even better than the famous game of TF1, “Ils gagnent des millions” (they earn millions)…