The remuneration of a CEO of a large company listed on the CAC 40 is composed of several distinct components: a fixed part, an annual variable part linked to objectives, and performance share grants subject to long-term conditions. At Veolia, this mechanism applies to CEO Estelle Brachlianoff, whose package illustrates the recent trend of increasing the weight of variable compensation in the overall remuneration of executives.
Structure of remuneration at Veolia: fixed, variable, and performance shares
Understanding the salary of the CEO of Veolia requires distinguishing three components that do not follow the same logic. The fixed part constitutes the guaranteed base, paid monthly regardless of the group’s results. It represents the smallest fraction of the total package.
The annual variable remuneration depends on performance criteria defined by the board of directors. These criteria generally combine financial indicators (revenue, operating profit) and extra-financial indicators related to the group’s environmental or social commitments.
The third component, often the most significant in value, is based on performance shares. These shares are only definitively acquired by the executive after a period of several years, provided that specific objectives have been met. The board of directors of Veolia formalized this mechanism during its May 2024 meeting, detailing the allocation conditions in a regulatory document compliant with the AFEP-MEDEF governance code.
Estelle Brachlianoff’s remuneration: the rise of variable compensation
Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia, is one of the few women leading a CAC 40 company. Her total remuneration has seen a notable increase in recent years, driven by the rise in variable and share components.
For the 2023 fiscal year, total remuneration was close to the levels typically cited for executives of large public service groups. The trend since then is clear: the variable increasingly outweighs the fixed, aligning the executive’s interests more closely with the group’s results.
Why the board of directors is strengthening the remuneration-performance link
The AFEP-MEDEF code, a reference for governance in French listed companies, recommends that the variable part and performance shares represent the majority of an executive’s remuneration package. The objective is twofold:
- To encourage the executive to steer the group towards long-term goals, as shares are only acquired after several years of presence and results that meet objectives
- To avoid remuneration disconnected from actual performance by conditioning a significant part of income to measurable indicators
- To respond to shareholder expectations, who vote each year on the remuneration policy at the annual general meeting (the “say on pay” vote)
This structure explains why the total amount displayed can vary significantly from year to year, without the fixed part changing.
Remuneration of CAC 40 executives: where does Veolia stand?
Executive remuneration in the CAC 40 has been on the rise since 2024, according to several analyses published in the economic press. In this context, the remuneration of the CEO of Veolia remains in the lower to median range of the panel, compared to executives of industrial or luxury groups whose packages reach significantly higher levels.
Veolia stands out for the weight of extra-financial criteria in calculating variable compensation. The group, whose activities cover water, waste, and energy management, incorporates indicators related to ecological transition. This choice reflects the group’s purpose but also introduces a degree of complexity in evaluating performance.
Sector comparison: public services versus heavy industry
Environmental service companies generally display lower executive remuneration levels than those in the oil, luxury, or banking industries. Several factors explain this gap:
- Operational margins in public services are lower than in luxury or fossil energy, which mechanically limits remuneration envelopes
- The partially regulated nature of the activity (public contracts, regulated tariffs) reduces the volatility of results, and thus the potential for overperformance rewarded by variable compensation
- Political and media pressure on remuneration is stronger when the company manages a public service, pushing boards of directors towards relative moderation
The debate on executive remuneration: what Veolia reveals
The Veolia case fuels a broader debate on the gap between executive remuneration and that of employees. In 2022, employees of Veolia Eau Île-de-France staged a three-day strike to obtain pay increases, while the subsidiary was generating regular annual profits. The strikers secured a reclassification and a quarterly bonus, but the Force Ouvrière union emphasized that the fight for salary increases remains open.
This type of tension is not unique to Veolia. The gap between executive remuneration and median salary remains a recurring topic in the general meetings of large French companies. The shareholder vote on the salary policy, made binding by law, offers a control lever, but rejections remain rare in practice.
The increase in variable compensation in Estelle Brachlianoff’s package reflects a structural evolution in the governance of listed groups. It does not resolve the question of the social acceptability of these amounts, but it changes the nature of the debate: remuneration is no longer a guaranteed amount, but a bet on the executive’s ability to achieve measurable results over several years.