More than half of the top executives of the 28 Ibex companies that have published the perceptive annual reports in the CNMV have increased their remunerations in 2023 above the 3.46% that was agreed on as an average increase in the collective agreements for the year. past and the annual inflation that remained at 3.3%.
Although also in a quarter of the cases there have been decreases in salaries, although the majority of salaries are millionaires.
As is usually the case, only the president of Santander, Ana Botín, and that of Bankinter, María Dolores Dancausa, are the only women who are placed in that select group. The rest are men. It is one more example that is repeated year after year that shows the glass ceiling for women. “There is a lot of resistance to change and companies are not having intelligent strategies to resolve this situation,” reflects Raquel Valero, Hays Group consultant. “There is a lack of female role models in management positions” that makes it difficult to close the gap, she adds. The problem is widespread in companies: “there continues to be a gender gap in the Spanish labor market that affects all layers, managers, middle managers and entry positions in organizations,” says Miguel Portillo, director of Page Executive Spain.
Precisely Botín (with 12.2 million) together with the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, (13.8 million) and his counterpart at BBVA, Carlos Torres, (7.6) are the first three highest-paid executives on the Ibex –without counting compensation–. Between the three of them they received more than 33 million.
Portillo points out that “remunerations in general, and those of managers in particular, have grown after Covid because there has been a general rebound in results activity in all sectors. The companies have grown and are stronger. This results in better remuneration packages.” Raquel Valero believes that there is also an image part in remuneration, in such a way that there are companies that opt ??for high salaries to show “power” to the market.
However, the executives mentioned from the two large banks and the first electricity company are not the ones who received the most remuneration in 2023 since the leadership is held by Ignacio Mataix, former CEO of Indra (a company owned by the State with 27.9 % of shares), with 15.5 million. They are almost 10 times more than the previous year. This large payroll is due to severance pay and a bonus that was linked to the stock price, which continues to skyrocket. The severance payment is contrary to the strategy followed by the CEOE of not increasing the costs of dismissal as the unions have demanded since the labor reform was agreed.
The other notable remuneration increase is 75% for the former CEO of Cellnex, Tobías Martínez. According to the CNMV, his remuneration was 5.9 million because that amount includes compensation and historical contributions to his pension plan.
Among those who suffer a greater cut in compensation is the president of Acciona, José Manuel Entrecaneles, who – despite receiving 3.8 million – obtained almost 29% less. The reason is due to the lower short-term variable remuneration. In the case of the CEO of Sabadell, César González-Bueno, his remuneration was reduced by 27.4%, to 1.8 million due to the extraordinary contribution of 600,000 euros to his pension plan.
On the other hand, the executive with the lowest salary is Maurici Lucena, who is the president of the public company Aena who earns 187,000 euros.
