The financial director is no longer the highest-paid profile in Argentine companies. Operations, Supply Chain, and Commercial are gaining ground as CFO salaries fall by up to 40% in real terms.
The CFO, who became the key figure in Argentine companies during years of high inflation and currency restrictions, has lost his throne in the executive market. According to the latest compensation studies, three profiles have displaced him: Operations, Supply Chain, and Commercial.
Martín Gerding, senior partner at Page Executive for Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, explains the change: “In 2023 and 2024, the priority was on survival and control. Today, the discussion has shifted from how to survive to how to grow.” The CFO, he adds, “has not lost relevance, but exclusivity.”
Data from Michael Page reflects the loss of purchasing power of the position. In 2023, a CFO at a large company earned between 3.5 and 6 million pesos gross per month. Adjusted for inflation, that range would today equate to between 24.2 and 41.4 million. However, the market pays between 15 and 30 million, well below.
Ezequiel Palacios, associate director at Stanton Chase, confirms that companies are deliberately lowering salary benchmarks. “You tell them that a search should pay 30 million and they respond: ‘Open it at 22 or 25’,” he points out.
The decline is also due to a greater supply of available executives from restructurings, mergers, and exits of multinationals. “Today, the supply is slightly larger than the demand,” says Joaquín Lizaso, partner at Spencer Stuart. As companies find good candidates, they no longer need to offer the aggressive bonuses of previous years.
Ana Renedo, partner at Faro HR, notes that previously an executive could change companies for an improvement of between 40% and 50%. “Today, the norm is around 20%,” she asserts. Those who are out of the market will likely return with a lower salary than they had.
While Finance loses exclusivity, Operations, Supply Chain, and Commercial gain space. With weak consumption and fewer possibilities to pass inefficiencies on to prices, companies need to review production, logistics, and sales channels. Lizaso ranks Operations and Supply Chain among the most sought-after functions, ahead of Commercial and Marketing.
For readers interested in the executive job market, the trend implies that a CFO looking to change jobs will need to lower their salary expectations, while professionals in operations and supply chain have better negotiation prospects. Companies, for their part, find a more favourable market to hire financial talent without the need for exceptional bonuses.
Salaries close to the updated values only appear in exceptional cases, especially in oil and gas, mining, national laboratories, or companies with complex financial needs. In the rest of the sectors, the salary range has stabilised at lower levels.
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