28/09/09


Executives in Luxembourg Among the Best Paid in Europe


It was a bit out of place. Just when it came to legislating on golden handshakes, to regulating compensation packages in the banking sector, or at least a basic harmonization in Europe, the financial analysis firm Alpha Value published in the French daily newspaper La Tribune the results of a study which shows that executives in Luxembourg are among the best paid in Europe.

According to the survey, their average annual salary amounts to €1.58m; this means that bosses in Luxembourg rank second in Europe, behind Spain (€2.44m) and just before Italy (€1.57m).

This result does not come as a surprise, as it is well-known that the average salary level is rather high in Luxembourg, even higher than in the other European countries. However, while in the rest of Europe as a whole the fixed remuneration of executives of the banking sector fell by 41% compared with the previous year, in Luxembourg it increased by 35.3% over the same period.

In Luxembourg, the remuneration of directors and corporate executives are fixed by an independent Compensation Committee. Companies are not required to publish the salaries of the individual executives. Moreover, the current legislation does not require that the remuneration of an executive be related to the performance of his/her company, unlike what happens in many other countries.


Sophie Sellier
English version: Robert Mouris



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