It is possible that the CEO of Poste Italiane earns a salary five times higher than that of the president of the European Central Bank? It would seem so. Indeed, it was yesterday's news that Mario Draghi's salary for 2012 stood at 374.00 euros, according to official data from the ECB, against 500 euros for Massimo Sarmi, CEO of the Post Office.
In times of spending reviews, Italian managers do the math in their pockets. In the Salva-Italia decree, in fact, the first limitations on the emoluments paid to public administration executivesi, with a ceiling set at 294 thousand euros (i.e. the salary of the first president of the Cassation), limitations that should have been extended, through an implementing decree that divided them into bands, also to companies controlled directly by the Treasury. Decree that the Monti government has not issued within the established deadlines, but which could be approved by the new executive.
The heads of CDP, Sace and Ferrovie dello Stato will pay the price for these possible limitations, looking at the companies with the expiring board of directors. If the ceiling of 294 thousand euros were also extended to companies under the control of the Ministry of Economy, the CEOs, see Giovanni Gorno Temprini (who currently earns 952.000 euros), Alessandro Castellano (over one million) and Mauro Moretti (870 thousand euros) , they would see their paychecks shrink dramatically.
In addition to them, later on, it would also be the turn of the managing directors of Invitalia, Rai, Consap, Anas (the CEO Pietro Ciucci earns 750 thousand euros) and the Italian post office. The ceiling, on the other hand, would not concern the salaries of the top management of companies listed on the stock exchange.
A mandatory limitation, therefore, also looking at the frankly ungenerous comparison between the salaries of the president of the ECB and those of the CEO of Poste Italiane. Be careful, however, to keep the ceiling on executive salaries in line with what the market offers. The risk, otherwise, is to see the best taken away.
