It is logical that the main director of a large company listed on the Ibex 35 has a high salary. After all, the responsibility of managing the money and resources entrusted to you by your investors falls on your shoulders. However, there is some debate about How much should CEOs earn? of companies with respect to the average salary of their employees.
A recent report of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) confirms that each year the salary gap that exists between bosses and their employees grows larger.
Rising wage gap. He CNMV analysis maintains that in 2024 Ibex 35 executives earned 55 times more than the average salary of employees in their own companies. This value has grown from the 53 times recorded in the previous year’s report.
This calculation, according to the same report, was “only” 18 times in those listed outside the Ibex 35 and the global average of all Spanish listed companies was 33 times the average salary of their employees. This figure is above the 31 times that was recorded in 2023, evidencing an upward evolution of the wage gap that shows no signs of stopping.
Salaries in figures. The CNMV report indicates that, over the last 20 years, the average salary of Ibex 35 CEOs has multiplied by 2.7, going from 1.37 million euros in 2004 to 3.73 million in 2024, which represents a total increase of 172%.
On the other hand, only in 2024, the average salary of executive directors increased by 7.6%, reaching an average of 1.9 million euros, a salary amount that was far exceeded by some of the main executives of the Ibex 35. According to what was published by Digital EconomyHéctor Grisi, CEO of Santander, would have received a salary of 8.3 million euros; Carlos Torres, president of BBVA, received a remuneration of 7.15 million, or Florentino Pérez, president of ACS, who pocketed 7.95 million euros in 2024.
In contrast to them, we find cases very far from those figures, such as that of the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, who earned 190,857 euros gross in the same period.
The magnitude of the gap. At the same time managers’ salaries reached three-digit increases, the average salary in Spain only rose 49.48% during the same period. In the case of employees, the average gross salary went from 18,435.6 euros in 2004 to 27,558.7 current euros.
This increase was even below the accumulated inflation in that period which, according to INE data, It stands at 56.3%. This means that the average salaries of the workers of these companies not only did not grow at the same rate than that of their bossesbut it meant a direct loss of their purchasing power.
Salaries have not only grown for CEOs. The data reveal that the salary increase has not only been recorded among executive directors, but remuneration to the boards of directors has also increased, increasing by up to 5.3% in 2024 alone, with an average total per leadership of 4.3 million euros.
The report underlines that even within this business elite there is also a wage gap marked by gender. In 2024, female Ibex 35 executive directors earned, on average, 30.4% more than their male counterparts, although, due to the low number of women at the highest management level, this data varies greatly depending on the company and its representativeness is limited.
Image | Flickr (World Travel & Tourism Council), Wikimedia Commons (Barcex), CNMV
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