G.M. Chief to Make $9 Million a Year in Salary and Stock and approved by Ken Feinberg (formerly known as the pay czar)

GM still owes the U.S. Government (a.k.a. U.S. citizens) $45.3 Billion but don't worry, this is how Washington D.C. and corporate America roll. How about Ed Whitacre being paid $300,000 during his final 4 months on the GM board of directors. You might remember Ed who cut the commercial telling America GM paid back their loan, in full and early. He neglected to mention the remaining $45.3 billion tab held by we taxpayers. $75,000 per month to sit on the board while we own 61% of GM! SLEEP WELL ED.

By Nick Bunkley
Published: September 10, 2010
The New York Times
DETROIT — The chief executive of General Motors, Daniel F. Akerson, will receive up to $9 million in annual compensation, including $1.7 million in cash.

Mr. Akerson’s pay package, which G.M. disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing, is structured the same as that of his predecessor, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., who stepped down as chief on Sept. 1 but will remain chairman until the end of the year. The compensation was approved by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the government’s special master for executive compensation under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which lent about $50 billion to G.M., the company said in the regulatory filing.

Mr. Akerson, the fourth chief at G.M. since March 2009, will receive $5.3 million a year in stock, paid over three years starting Sept. 30, 2011, and $2 million a year in restricted stock under a long-term incentive plan, G.M. said. Mr. Whitacre is scheduled to begin receiving his stock in 2012.

Mr. Whitacre will earn $300,000 for his final four months on G.M.’s board. Both Mr. Akerson and Mr. Whitacre joined the board in July 2009, as G.M. emerged from bankruptcy protection, with Mr. Whitacre taking over as chief after the directors ousted Fritz Henderson.

Mr. Akerson’s compensation is worth 40 percent less than the $14.9 million paid in 2008 to Rick Wagoner, who led G.M. from 2001 until the Obama administration asked him to step down in early 2009. Mr. Henderson earned $5.5 million in about eight months as chief executive.

G.M.’s chief executive will earn about half as much as his counterpart of the Ford Motor Company, Alan R. Mulally, whose 2009 compensation was valued at $17.9 million.

Mr. Akerson, a former telecommunications executive who most recently was with the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, was tapped last month to succeed Mr. Whitacre as the automaker prepared for a highly anticipated public stock offering later this year. The federal government owns 61 percent of G.M., and the stock sale will allow Washington to begin reducing its stake and recouping more of the money lent to the carmaker.

G.M. has been on the upswing this year, earning about $2.1 billion in profit during the first half as its sales increased.

Executive compensation has been a sore subject for members of the United Automobile Workers union, which agreed to give up some benefits and reduce pay for newly hired workers in order to help the Detroit automakers survive. The concessions cost the average auto worker $7,000 to $30,000 in annual pay, U.A.W. leaders have said, and hourly workers have expressed anger about pay and benefit cuts being reversed more quickly to salaried workers and executives than to themselves.