Only two Dutch-nationals, one woman in top 10 highest-paid CEOs in Netherlands

The top ten best-paid CEOs of leading Netherlands-based companies include only two Dutch nationals and only one woman, according to the Volkskrant’s annual study of top incomes. Booking’s American CEO Glen Fogel topped the list for the first time.

Last year, Fogel earned a basic salary of 678,000 euros, a bonus of just over 4.5 million euros, over 37 million euros in share profits, and another 37 million euros in “other income.” That brings the total remuneration of the American CEO of the originally Dutch holiday rental platform to over 42 million euros last year.

Carlos Tavares, the Portuguese CEO of the Amsterdam-based car company Stellantis, which includes Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, and Jeep, is in a distant second place. He earned 36.5 million euros last year, over a third more than the year before.

Third place went to Lucian Griange, the British CEO of Universal Music Group (UMG), who received 27.9 million euros in remuneration last year, followed by Kurt Sievers, the German CEO of chip company NXP, at 19.1 million euros.

The top five is rounded off by the first Dutchman on the list - Richard Blickman of chip company Besi. He earned 19.0 million euros last year. The other Dutchman on the list is Peter Wennink, the now-former CEO of ASML. He earned 6.5 million euros last year. Nancy McKinstry is the only woman on the list. The American CEO of Wolters Kluwer earned 15.6 million euros last year, putting her in seventh place.

In total, the average remuneration of a CEO at the over 100 companies studied was 3.72 million euros, 13.6 percent more than a year earlier. The average collective bargaining wage increase was 6.1 percent last year, with many employers complaining about too high wage costs. The wage gap - the difference between what a company paid to its CEO and an average employee - was 41.8. That means, on average, the CEO earned almost 42 times more than their average employee last year.

Here are the top ten highest-paid CEOs in the Netherlands, their total remuneration last year, and the wage gap with the average employee in their company.