General Motors CEO Mary Barra took home $21.6 million in compensation in 2019, enough to make her the highest-paid executive among the Detroit Big Three.
While Barra’s base salary is $2.1 million, the remaining 90 percent of her salary is described by GM as being “at risk” – meaning its amount hinges on the overall performance of the company. Barra is also one of the top 20 best-paid CEOs in all of corporate America, though that is partly due to the fact that she also serves as the automaker’s chairman in addition to its CEO.
GM CEO Mary Barra (right) meets with UAW workers in 2019
Barra’s pay was actually slightly down from her 2018 compensation of $21.87 million. She also took home roughly $22 million in 2017. GM says Barra’s pay is equivalent to 203 times that of the median GM employee salary of $106,715.
According to The Detroit Free Press, Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley took home $14.4 million last year, while Ford CEO Jim Hackett made $17.4 million. Manley’s pay represents the largest contrast to median employee worker salary of all the Big Three at 232 times as much as the average FCA worker’s. Hackett’s pay is 157 times higher than the median Ford employee’s salary.
GM announced earlier this year that its senior executives will take on a 20 percent cash payment deferral due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a 5 percent pay cut. Barra is taking on a 10 percent pay cut in addition to the 20 percent deferral, so she will be paid out 30 percent less in 2020 than in 2019. GM’s board of directors will also take a 20 percent pay cut due to the pandemic, which has led to major losses as automakers due to closed dealerships and plant shutdowns, among other business setbacks.
Mark Reuss
In addition to Barra, GM President Mark Reuss and GM CFO Dhivya Suryadevara count themselves among GM’s top-paid executives. Reuss made $8.1 million last year, while Suryadevara made $6.8 million. Executive Vice President and President of the Americas region, Barry Engle, also made a significant $5.1 million.
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Comments
I know what’s coming….
“Murray is tha worstest wamen in de whole wide world!”…. covered!..
Guestt
O’TAY
Ima tour de whole hour gang kwu will time in.
One quarter of her yearly wage is enough for most people to live on for life. She deserves to be paid well, but maybe not 21 million a year well.
Compare her salary to someone like Dak Prescott (who hasn’t done anything) 31.4 million, would you rather have the “Hack-it” running the company, Look what’s going on over their, have you heard?
Top six exec’s pay more than 2019 income.
https://www.ibtimes.com/fords-struggles-continue-6-top-executives-paid-more-its-2019-net-income-2965927
TALF
All of those people are over paid. Of course this is just my opinion.
I was surprised to read the median salary of almost $107,000. Seems like some folks are making decent money at GM.
Being a CEO of a company this complex, this global, this big, requires someone who is extremely valuable and smart. I think CEO pay is TOTALLY justified as a pathetic “actor” gets paid millions for being stupid. That said MB is not qualified for this role. She was essentially appointed by the ObuttMaster Admin and no one is going to fire her due to her being a her. She is a lifer at GM as was her father. I don’t dispute she is a smart person, I don’t dispute her love for GM but her 10 year track record of running this company is pathetic. She inherited a clean balance sheet after the BK, what has she done with that? Cadillac is still a mess, they’ve retracted from multiple global markets, exited vehicle segments, sold Opel & Vauxhall (PSA made a profit in their first year of ownership), and now has 99% of the eggs in an EV basket. The stock has done nothing in 10 years nor has GM had any truly successful launches except the Vette.
I suggest if she were a he, he’d be long gone!
Let compare her with Buddy Hackett at Ford. They killed their sedans think “everyone” wants Strange Rovers with the DCT fiasco that put the last nail in the coffin , a joke of an E/V program despite a 5-10 yr start on GM, quality problems, sub $10 share price, quarterly losses before CV19, etc. She would had done half of that she’d be dismissed.
“a 5-10 yr start on GM”? How so?
Fusion, C-Max, MKZ, Milan, Mariner, Focus and blows the mind that the Hybrid/plug-in Escape was dropped for a generation and no hybrid CUV was offered from 10′ till recently, all were on the road before an answer from GM.
Guestt
4th Gen. Cadillac Escalade 2015
4th Gen, Lincoln Navigator 2018
Ford let their marquee SUV rot on the market for a decade while they got HY and ate BRID.
What does a niche dinosaurs have to do with Ford being behind GM in today’s E/V development despite having a huge headstart over GM?. 2 outgoing Hybrid SUVs and Volt vs Ford’s lineup at the time is laughable.
Guestt
A decade ago, Tesla and Toyota partnered to build a RAV4 EV. Toyota came in with all its state of the art Hybrid tech. Tesla Engineers took a good long look. Than said: all this $h!t is worthless.
Again, what PHEV vehicles outside of Tahoe/Escalade/Volt at that time GM had that was on the road?….none.
Guestt
But Hybrid sales are falling. Why should GM invest billions of dollars into a technology with a very short shelf life.
Voltec in the Bolt is from directly from the Volt program, even Ford’s E/V versions came from the Escape Hybrid program. Either way Ford had PHEV and E/Vs on the road before GM did but embarrassedly GM leaving Ford behind on E/Vs today.
I think that as part of the bailout, there should have been a provision that no GM lifer would be allowed to be CEO for at least 20 years. Barra learned her trade under some of the worst CEOs in US business history.
Tigger
I think it was old GM that got the bail out, and had the government take over its auto business.
This is the GM was taken over by the Government. Then sold off a few years later.
But MB was appointed by Barry Soetoro…
Vanstaker
O’TAY
Link?….
Being a CEO is not easy. They generally have had to work their way up. That means, 2-3 marriages, never seeing the kids grow up, living out of a suit case, spending 5-10 years overseas often in a third world location,
You also generally have used up half your liver, you are not liked by most as you seldom see the one that gets to deliver good news, the board pressures you just as do the share holders beyond belief. The least of your worries are the web CEO’s that think they know better.
The hours are 24/7 as you can be called at anytime yo report or you just never get home.
Then one day they come to you and ask you to quietly resign or you get fired in a most public way.
Granted the money helps but few leaders live long enough to really enjoy it out side Bob Lutz.
I knew the CEO of Firestone. He made the cuts to save the company up sell it to Bridgestone. He was a mess. He had all sorts of threats etc. but if he had not gone what he did there would be no Firestone.
Just look at what they did yo Delorean at GM when he was there. .
Those who generally benefit the most of a CEO is the ex spouse.
Sports people have it good. By the time they are 30 they have two bad knees and only had to work part of the year. They only have yo worry about stretching the money out hill they die.
Actors they generally are too stupid to know better. Most make big money then put the rest up their nose. Most die nearly broke.
It is a hard life no doubt but I have no sympathy for those that sell their soul to a corporation, nor should anyone else. Americans could learn a thing or too from others in the world about a healthy work-life balance.
Funny that a Brit said this.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.’
No matter our faults I would not trade living in America for anywhere else.
Here nearly anyone can make a good life for themselves If they are willing to put in the effort.
If you chose not to put in the efforts then you must accept less reward.
Everyone is free to choose.
Heck anymore if you show up everyday and pass a drug test Even doing a half a$$ job most companies love you.
Compared to companies like sports teams, these guys make nothing. Sports teams make no product or service to you as a person gives any long time joy or happiness. They play a game you watch that you pay money for and you might get a shirt or seat. These companies make a product you can enjoy for longer than a hour or two and you use everyday.
Why does she always dress so bad then? I mean $21.6 would buy a lot of couture clothing. Instead she usually has on some black jacket with zippers or snaps that looks like it was new for ‘82 and the last time it saw a retail environment was at a Goodwill store.
I wouldn’t normally say that about a person. I’m normally more polite than that but it’s the truth and it’s relevant as I see it because the design of GM’s products has declined under her tenure. I have to think that is reflective of her personal lack of style or good taste. Start paying attention to her at GM events. She often shows up looking like someone who just got off the back of a Harley; not at all like a $21.6 million dollar woman.
It’s smart, the way she dress you’ll think she got there because of her brains and not showing off her “airbags”…
Totally missed that point didn’t you.
No I didn’t.. a female CEO can dress modestly.
BTW what makes the design in GM “declined” because of her clothes?. FCA had 500-700hp+ rwd vehicles released under a guy wearing bad sweaters…
Women in business are between a Rock and a hard place. They dress too feminine they are not taken serious. They dress too tough they are considered butch.
No matter what they do it’s wrong in someone’s eyes.
With a man at GM Black suit and blue tie and you are set.
Delorean dressed flashy back in the day. My great uncle was a GM executive and he used to curse John for the way he dressed just because he did not no along.
GM think is you fall in line. Mary tried to split the soft and the tough look.
Talked about Grand Theft as it’s obvious that Mary Barra knows where all the bodies are buried because no one should be paying her a dollar after the mistakes that she has made and essentially flushed tens of millions down the toilet especially when it involves Cadillac, look at the CT6 that was meant to be the jewel of the industry, the Blackwing V8 or the upcoming Celestiq with it’s $200K which will be Cadillac’s next failure.
I think you will find the board had more to do with Cadillac as they are the force pushing the EV program.
They want GM to be seen as a tech company.
Often the CEO only executes the directive of the board.
This is why Loyd Reuss was shown the door as he tried to push his agenda not the board.
Being a CEO you walk a fine line between their will and your own will. Any failure you are the scope goat and the board never takes any blame.
And she learned her so called trade under several of the worst CEO’s in GM’s history so I’m in the camp she doesn’t deserve anywhere near that kind of money. She has totally lost me as a future customer along with numerous friends and family members that would have bought another Impala or Regal or Lacrosse/CT6 etc if they weren’t stupidly discontinuing them.
Is that with the Typhoid chaser ?