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CEO Mary Barra Gets Pay Cut As GM Misses EV, AV Targets

General Motors CEO Mary Barra saw her 2023 pay drop 3.9 percent compared to the previous year as the automaker missed several electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) goals, according to the company’s executive compensation report to the SEC.

Mary Barra ended the year with only $27.85 million in compensation after the executive pay formula penalized her for the EV and AV shortfall, down from her $28.98 million pay in 2022, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The GM Renaissance HQ of Mary Barra.

In addition to any effects the pay reduction may have had on her lifestyle, Mary Barra lost her first-place position among the Detroit Three’s chief executives to Carlos Tavares, the head of Stellantis. Tavares saw his pay skyrocket to $39 million for 2023, a controversial sum given that the jobs of many thousands of Stellantis employees are being simultaneously axed. Jim Farley of Ford is nipping at Barra’s heels as his pay rose 26 percent to $26.5 million.

The executive pay filing by GM also revealed that Barra is paid at a 303-to-1 ratio relative to the median General Motors employee. Barra’s base salary is $2.1 million, with the rest made of $14.6 million in stock, $4.9 million in options, $5.3 million from the company’s executive incentive plan, and slightly less than a million in other payments.

The GM logo.

Barra received less incentive pay related to EVs, which have shown weaker than expected sales across the board, and to AVs, after GM’s Cruise robotaxi subsidiary operations came to halt after a high-profile accident. Other executives also took a pay cut for the same reasons.

The report also noted that for 2024, white-collar employees at GM will suffer similar pay cuts if the company’s EVs or AVs underperform, or conversely enjoy bonuses if the electric and autonomous portions of the business thrive. All salaried employees will now have their bonuses calculated on the basis of AV, EV, and software and services performance.

Mary Barra in front of a Cadillac Lyriq EV.

Mary Barra’s pay has fluctuated over the past several years as factors within the company change. It was initially reported that she made $23.7 million in 2020 during the height of the COVID lockdowns, but a later study pegged her 2020 earnings at $40.3 million. Her compensation skyrocketed 23 percent – from the lower figure – to $29 million in 2021.

Finally, in 2022, she raked in just under $29 million – though Automotive News claimed she made $34.1 million in 2022 and $62.2 million in 2021, putting her at third place in the world for automotive industry CEO salaries, behind Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at $506.3 million and Lucid Group CEO Peter Rawlinson at $379 million.

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Comments

  1. Yeah. 1 million pay cut is peanuts to her.

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  2. She’s lucky to have a job. Just give her, her golden parachute and be done with it.

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    1. A corporation’s goal is to return value to it’s shareholders. Let’s judge her by the most important metric to accomplish this goal, the corporation’s stock price. Over her now 10+ year career, GM’s stock has remained essentially stagnet , with little to no growth. There is a reason Warren Buffet, as one of GM’s largest shareholders, dumped ALL of his GM stock… She has failed to delivery any value or growth to the company’s stakholders. I don’t care about Apple Carplay, whther this model or that saw the light of production, or electrification. She has failed to accomplish the corporation’s primary goal. Holding steady just isnt good enough…

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      1. One could argue that any corporation’s primary goal is to make money, i.e. profits.
        By that measure, the past 10 years have only seen one year of losses (2017: $3.9 billion) with an average net income of $6.5 billion.

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    2. Yeah, how dare she be rewarded for GM’s massive increase in orofits under her leadership? Some guy on the internet is butthurt a woman is CEO of a car company and that is what really matters.

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  3. She’s lucky to have a job with the EV fumble and attempting to skip hybrids. lol wtf were they thinking

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  4. It bewilders me the hate for Barra on this forum. She hasn’t done fantastic, just good. But I’d argue better than Rivian’s CEO who got 10X her comp. Why no hate for Peter?

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    1. She was getting hate the day she was made CEO. That should provide a hint as to why she gets an oversized amount of hate here.

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      1. She completely neutered the car company of anything worth being excited for. They pump out phoned and garbage day after day with just barely enough to get by. Special editions are sticker packages, power trains have gone stagnant just like their stock. She was at the helm during the demise of a great car company.

        GM is like Toyota of 2007. Boring and drab vehicles. Only difference is a lot lower reliability. So with GM you get high prices, boring vehicles and middle of the road reliability.

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    2. I think she’s doing a lot better than Farley at Ford.

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    3. There are a number of reasons people complain. 1. Lackluster performance. You can say it’s an industry-wide phenomenon, but GM arguably didn’t have to go “all in” on EV targets that it couldn’t reasonably meet. 2. Debacles and teething problems: Cruise AV did not take off as hoped, GM derided Tesla for years before rushing out the Bolt, and popular gas cars were underappreciated with successive models seeing reduced engine sizes and their fans ignored. 3. A change in tone and policy. GM has transitioned to becoming proactive on a number of social issues, which has resulted in a lot of talk on subjects that have nothing to do with building cars. This has caused some to grow concerned that GM is not staying focused.

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      1. I don’t know if I would call 3B profit for a quarter lackluster.

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        1. Coming off the most over inflated car market in history?

          They will need to slash slash slash their prices. They don’t realize they could spend 500-750 more dollars on a vehicle and avoid the whole enormous discounts, middling reliability and declining market share.

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          1. I’m not going to go into the reason(s) WHY Barra is a poor manager (diversity, gender or other is beside the point) or hold her responsible for bad lifters, blown engines or software glitches, but at her level of management, she sets goals and manages people, who manage people, who manage people, who manage people, however deep the structure goes, to work towards those goals. If any CEO can’t figure out how to “manage the managers” and so far we have not seen evidence she can do it, then the company is on its way to a slow stop.

            Several have pointed out here that it is not just the terrible decisions she has made regarding goals the SHE personally set, but her failure to acknowledge her responsibility in not meeting them and not just by a pay cut of a measly 3%.

            If the people who she directly manages are not getting the job done, then SHE is responsible to go as deep within the organization as necessary to make the required changes.

            What bothers me is that she adopted and approved the most total blackout of information and the multiple lies she has told regarding Lyriq production and delivery dates to cover her mistakes. It was so disrespectful to customers that many longtime GM brand owners have said on Lyriq specific forms they will never purchase a GM product again. It was not the “crime” it was the coverup.

            Every CEO will make the occasional bad decision, but when they make a string of them that kill off future sales, they need to leave “to explore other opportunities and spend more time with their family “.

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            1. CEOs aren’t involved deeply in comms strategy. My best friend was the head of comms for a Fortune 500 company CEO. He spent 1 hour tops per week on comms. CEOs care about operations, they don’t spend enough time on communications with customers or stakeholders. The only people they talk to are board members and major institutional shareholders.

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    4. mkAtx – maybe the reason why people don’t talk about the Rivian’s CEO is because this isn’t a Rivian forum. She may get a lot of hate from the people on here because she is a woman, and I would argue the reason she gets a lot of love from the press and the Democrat Party is because she is a woman? I trust the opinion of the readers/commenters here more than the media and Democrat Party.

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    5. It isn’t bewildering. It is a bunch of mouth breathing, knuckle dragging Neanderthals who are triggered a woman is more successful than they are.

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  5. Good.

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  6. I just don’t get the mindset of people making that much money. I could comfortably retire on $26million. Why would you bother working anymore?

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    1. They’re power hungry and enjoy the dominance they have over others.

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      1. I think it depends. I expect Barra is driven, and wants to make a difference in the world. She does not strike me as a tyrant though. I’ve met CEO’s that are tyrants, and she just doesn’t seem to have the sociopath gene. Hence the reason I don’t get the hate. She has been at gm(GM) since 1980, rose up thru the ranks and deserves where she got. Latest earnings seem very good in a tough market. And I don’t hear her whining she got a slight pay cut. Its not like she now wants to move the company to a new state like some auto ceo’s that don’t get their way.

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        1. We haven’t really gotten into the tough market yet. There will be one that rhymes with but not repeats ’07-’12. When cash cows milk dry. It’s hard to tell how they’re prepared for a downturn.

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      2. And being power hungry is bitting them in the ass!

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    2. She needs to go.GM used to build cars the people wanted now they are trying to build cars the government wants.Only one sports car and she killed the Camaro again 🤬

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  7. Not pro or con her pay package but if her compensation package is anything like it was in 2022, her actual cash salary was $2M, cash bonus $9M and the rest in non-cash stock options. The split was likely similar in 2023.

    That’s A LOT of compensation by anyone’s standards but just to put it in perspective, even if her entire salary was in cash she’d rank as a midlevel QB in the NFL. The Lions just re-upped a WR for nearly that much. It’s the same with senior level business and entertainment salaries everywhere you look.

    To me, it’s hard to reconcile the compensation of a CEO responsible for 100-200,000 workers and generating $200B in revenue vs sports and entertainment people responsible for playing a good game or acting a part.

    They’re all way over paid compared to working stiffs, imo. Some more than others.

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  8. The pay packages for Lucid and Rivian are unbelievable! Neither is well established, though Rivian is doing better than Lucid. I would imagine much of it is in stock or options. If the business fails, they’ll get zilch.

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  9. Rick Waggoner without the balls

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  10. As far as I can see that’s still $27 million too much. Time for some new blood. Someone with CAR SENSE!!!!!!!!

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  11. She is going a great job. Its so easy for people to make fun and be critical of people. Try doing the job yourself and you will see its not easy.

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  12. She should be fired for the poor way she is running GM. I have been trying to get a new GMC Canyon Denali for over a year and no end in sight. For over 40 years I have been buying and ordering GM products and never have experienced this market shortage.

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  13. Mary Barra aside…I’m also concerned with all the salaried employees being incentivized on EV/AV and software performance.

    By “performance” it could mean actual effectiveness at what it is intended to do (how it performs for the consumer), or how much sales they get. I’m hoping for the former, but betting its the latter. Which is concerning because it means those employees need to continue to develop tech and EVs when the market is already indicating otherwise. Guess that is their problem…

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    1. Shareholders basing pay on “performance” in a segment that consumers don’t want sounds like losing proposition for gm. Winning a losing game isn’t winning.

      Building the best BEV in the world isn’t going to make gm successful if there are no customers to buy them. How are the shareholders going to see any returns on that business model?

      STUPID!

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  14. Calling her a “diversity hire” in the pejorative continues to prove my point.

    I’m curious as to what qualifications an automotive CEO should have that she doesn’t.

    On the Bolt battery issue: Yes it happened on her watch. Correct. But the issues were with LG’s manufacturing process and that company paid for the module replacements.
    Not sure why that’s a mark against her especially considering the vehicle was deep into development by the time she was elected as CEO.

    The lifter issue is also happening on her watch. So? Wait until you hear about the ignition issues that happened under the watch of her predecessors or other similar issues happening at other automakers.

    Not saying it’s acceptable. Just wondering why that disqualifies her.

    My final take on this: She’s currently one of the longest tenured automotive CEOs in the industry.
    So unless the entirety of GM shareholders and board are collectively insane and/or are partaking in performative inclusion, they all seem relatively happy with her leadership.

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    1. The issues of the lifters are MINIMAL- stop trying to make it bigger than it actually is.

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    2. No, the problem is in this “woke” society is that any move to remove Barra (or any other female exec) will be viewed as misogynistic and chauvinistic and would be bad PR for gm. Barra has a job as long as she wants.

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  15. “Glass houses” to all the sexist complainers here.
    How many of YOU ran ANY worldwide company of the size of GM? Or took a pay cut because the company who employs such uneducated business “experts” such as yourselves had a less than stellar year.

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    1. A wise man once said “The more you know , the more you understand how much you don’t know”. The business “experts” you are referring to, have so little knowledge about the subject, that they don’t realize how far they are from understanding the challenges presented from running a multi billion, multi national company.

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      1. They are either upset that she is woman more successful than them, or upset the Camaro they can’t afford on the allowance from mom got cancelled.

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    2. I know of many who took a pay cut when their company was struggling in poor economic times. And it was a hell of a lot more than 3 percent and they were not making $27 million a year.

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  16. I do not care about her unfortunately.

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  17. None of the the big 3 CEO’S are doing a good job. GM has a number of screw ups going on, Ford is quality disaster. Just about everything they’ve build since Farley has been there has quality problems. Stallentis is laying people off by the truck load and suing a trans parts supplier because they think their parts are too expensive.

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    1. And Toyota with their twin turbo Tundra experiencing blown engines- ADD issues in the 2024 Tacomas, and main bearing failures in LC300s….

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  18. So are all the nay-sayers here trading in their GM vehicles and never buying from them again? If not, it’s criticism of something, that, by your wallet or purse, you don’t want changed. Walk the talk !

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  19. I, for one, just hope she can pay the mortgage and put food on the table. Times are tough these days and many working class Americans are suffering.

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  20. It’s simple, her ass needs to be fired. Amen.

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  21. When the “big guy” visits you and sniffs, nibbles and fondles you and tells you how to run your company, step back a second and see what Toyota is doing and follow their lead.

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  22. Please put a MAN back in charge, thank you.

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  23. They need to fire here and get someone who knows what customers want and it’s not EVS. And make distribution even with their dealers.and make vehicles that are exciting again. And everyone doesn’t want a Truck.But a manly SUV. That can hold 4 sets of golf clubs.

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  24. They need to fire her and get someone who knows what customers want and it’s not EVS. And make distribution even with their dealers.and make vehicles that are exciting again. And everyone doesn’t want a Truck.But a manly SUV. That can hold 4 sets of golf clubs.

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  25. If I feel Mary Barra is doing a poor job at a corporation once known as GM, I don’t need some woke goose stepping jackass to tell me otherwise. That is my perception. And I don’t need their permission to feel that way

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  26. Anyone remember the bailout?
    GM is repeating the same mistakes as prior to 2008 with building mostly large, expensive, inefficient vehicles that then don’t sell whent the economy takes a downturn. And the CEOs of Japanese carmakers still make a fraction of what the Big3 make, even though some such as Toyota sell more cars.

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    1. Toyota also was hit by the 2008 recession- you just did not hear about it. And Toyota never profits of the Tundra or the Seqouia either.

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