PARIS -- Ever since 2001, when France enacted a law requiring listed companies to reveal their executives' pay packages, newspapers have had a field day denouncing greedy bosses. Not only are fixed salaries revealed, but so are bonuses, fees for serving on boards of directors, returns on stock options, pension packages, and other perks such as corporate jets or chauffeur-driven cars.
But executive remuneration has usually faded from view once the journalistic spotlight shifts elsewhere -- that is, until now.
This year, executive heads have started to roll. In June, Antoine Zacharias, chairman and CEO of Vincy, France's biggest public concessions and construction company, was obliged to resign when a majority of the board of directors judged his remuneration to be outrageous: 4.3 million euro in salary, a 13 million euro retirement bonus, a 2.2 million euro pension, and an estimated 173 million euro in stock options.