Tough at the Top: CEO Salaries Out of Control

The US Treasury has handed GM CEO Dan Akerson a $9 million slap in the face

Perhaps because of the pesky detail that General Motors still owes the US taxpayer the paltry sum of $25 billion, GM’s largest shareholder (the US Government) has stepped in and capped CEO Dan Akerson’s salary at just $9 million – less than half what the other big boys get paid.

Bastards.

GM CEO Dan Akerson

  • $9 million income
  • $173,000/week
  • $34,000/day 

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne

  • $22.2 million income
  • $427,000/week
  • $85,000/day 

Ford CEO Alan Mullaly

"Yeah - mine is the biggest. Really. it is. I've never had any complaints." Ford CEO Alan Mulally on the size of his package, yesterday

  • $29.5 million income
  • $567,000/week
  • $113,000/day

Mr Akerson will reap a mere $9 million this year for being treated like God - $1.7 million in take-home pay and $7.3 million in equity-based incentive payments. Basically, it’s what he got last year. Some other senior GM execs will even cop pay cuts. Mark Reuss, who used to head up Holden before getting a proper job as boss of North America (boss of GM North America at least) says the restrictions could hurt GM’s chances of retaining the right people in high places. (Although you’d have to wonder if having the ‘wrong’ people would make things much worse.)

Meanwhile, over at Fiat (which, you might recall, bought Chrysler Corp in the 2009 fire sale) CEO Sergio Marcionne saw his remuneration jump a massive five-fold (compared with his 2010 pay) to $22.2 million in 2011. He graciously declined to receive additional pay from Chrysler. (Cue the sick bag.)

Ford – the one of the big three that managed not to go bankrupt, just – pays its front man Alan Mullaly $29.5 million, up 11%.

You have to remember that these are the kinds of sociopathic monkeys who think it’s OK to fly your corporate jet to Washington to be Congress for even more taxpayer funding because times are tough – and not see anything wrong with that. They didn’t even, like, jet-pool or consider slumming it in first class on a commercial jet.

Drive through the back blocks of Detroit (economic disaster zone meets shitsville) and tell me what these blokes earn is morally justified. Every $1 million is the same as 10 auto workers at the coalface who could be gainfully employed. No, wait. I'm sorry. Correction: That's what taxpayer-funded government grants for cars like the Volt, which nobody statistically wants, are for.

John Cadogan4 Comments