Independent proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has advised GM shareholders to reject the proposed compensation package for top executives at the upcoming annual General Motors shareholder meeting. This recommendation primarily affects top executives like company CEO Mary Barra, President Mark Reuss, and CFO Paul Jacobson, among others. Although the vote on the executive compensation package is non-binding, it may serve as a significant indicator of shareholder sentiment.
According to a report from Reuters, ISS justified its stance by stating, “A vote against this proposal is warranted. A pay-for-performance misalignment exists, and sufficient mitigating factors have not been identified for the year in review.” ISS also pointed out that while the short-term incentives were based on financial metrics, the target goals were set below the previous year’s targets and actual performance.
Demand for new EVs has shown signs of weakening, and General Motors recently announced plans to reintroduce PHEVs to the North American market as an interim solution while the broader U.S. EV charging infrastructure is built out.
As covered by GM Authority last month, General Motors CEO Mary Barra received a 3.9-percent pay reduction for the 2023 calendar year, dropping to $27.85 million from $28.98 million in 2022. This pay cut was attributed to missed targets on GM’s ambitious all-electric and autonomous vehicle goals. The pay cut resulted in Barra losing her first-place position as the top-paid chief executive among the Big Detroit Three (General Motors, Ford, Stellantis), with Stellantis chief Carlos Tavares taking up the spot with $39 million in compensation for 2023. Jim Farley, head of Ford, saw his compensation rise 26 percent in 2023 to $26.5 million.
Even with the pay cut, Barra’s compensation represents a 303-to-1 ratio compared to the median income for a General Motors employee. Barra’s base salary is set at $2.1 million, while the General Motors CEO also received $14.6 million in stock, $4.9 million in options, $5.3 million from the General Motors executive incentive plan, and less than $1 million from other payments.
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Comments
Other shareholders need to wake up to all these Blackrock/Vanguard/State Street implemented bonuses on execs for their agendas. It’s costing these companies BILLIONS of dollars. I know the hedge funds are more than willing to write off billions as just a marketing/propaganda expense, but at what point do the other shareholders say enough is enough?
Blackrock is funded by states funneling retirement funds to them. It needs to be broken down by Congress into smaller entities
But they won’t hold hearings on that…..the will instead get into fights about fake eylashes and phony insurrections.
Um Vanguard which is owned by the investors who have money there? They are not for profit like the others.
Before Covid, they counted loaner vehicles, for service customers, as sold units. Even though, they were never titled. At the end of every month they were wanting dealers to put vehicles in daily rental. So, they could cook the books and count them as sold units. It’s all smoke and mirrors with Mary and company. Did you ever see how much their European E Bike company Arriv lost? Where did they hide it? The company was short lived. They are doing the same thing with Cruise and Bridghtdrop. Smoke and mirrors!
It is shame. They used to be a good company. I sold lots of there vehicles over 36 years.
That’s not correct, at least for CBG dealers, maybe different for Cadillac. The only deliveries that counted towards objective were/are “D2”. A delivery into CTP is a “D1” and has not counted towards objective. It does currently take the vehicle out of dealers’ inventory age, but that’s it. The number of vehicles required per dealer for CTP is still significantly lower than pre-Covid, and there’s minimal days in service and mileage requirements now.
Mary Buick Envision Made in China-Barra’s annual compensation should less than $10 million/year based on her policy of discontinuing budget models and replacing them with more expensive models. Eventually all Chevrolets models will be unaffordable to a majority of the public.
I wholeheartedly agree!
People can vote. I know I do. I rarely vote in favor of ANY company’s comp plan. They are all too high. And at least Mary isn’t advertising for hers like a certain billionaire is after a judge in NJ took away his huge comp. Problem is funds own most the shares. So you have to go thru a few more hoops to make your shares in the fund vote the way you want. If you own the shares directly, you get an email and handy links to vote your shares.
Mary Barra is Peter’s Principle with a purse.
Why should Mary get a raise? When a Trax can’t make it from S Korea to the USA in a year. Who rewards that kind of incompetence? The Trax and Trailblazer should have been built in Lordstown. Has Mary ever hit a new vehicle intro date on time? Are shareholders happy with the amount of money wasted on EV’s and autonomous vehicles???
Not to worry. I bet the company car she orders is there within two weeks.
UGH………..Mary doesn’t deserve anything but a pink slip out the door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
100% CORRECT, SHE NEEDS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why? What has she done that has warranted a firing? She has GM in a better place than the other US manufacturers. She has upped GM in terms of technology and interiors which GM was known for being subpar. Any short comings in drivetrain are caught and remedied and still some of the more reliable options. So what is the problem other than they axed your favorite vehicle due to slow sales or a change in market. Every company jumped on the EV band wagon, that wasn’t GM only thing and they are now working towards a more balanced approach…
I am going to go out on a limb and say it is because a woman is running the company you love?
No. Incompetence comes in all genders and races.
100% CORRECT, SHE NEEDS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You said that already, and incorrectly so might I add…
If GM would stop raising vehicle prices and charging crazy money for safety features that should be included in the base price it would sure make the customers happy and safer too! In my opinion ALL upper management needs a decrease in pay and bonuses! The majority of the average person doesn’t make as much money in a lifetime what management personal make in a year! Tomg
Mary made the decision to advance the release of the Lyriq by a year when anyone could see it was not ready. Tesla had similar issues years ago but they informed those on the waitlist.
I had an order placed May 25, 2022 for a car that was finally produced December 21,2023. During that time my dealer had no idea what the problems were and referred me to the Cadillac Consigliere who referred me back to my dealer. In the 22 months I waited for that Lyriq, the only contact I had from Cadillac was two form emails. All the while, with Mary Barra’s approval, GM and Cadillac spent tens of millions of dollars on an advertising campaign when there were no cars to sell.
GM’s culture of secrecy and out right lying to their customers has cost Cadillac untold numbers of long time customers saying they will never purchase another GM vehicle because of the way they were treated.
Culture is set at the top, with Mary Barra. Any more of her wonderful decisions will send GM into another bankruptcy.
And people were mad the the union hahaha.
When you start building vehicles with a mindset of ” take it or leave it ” the shareholders need to step in. How many dealers have dropped Cadillac? How many new model calamities do you need ? How many customers want a v6 and not a turbo 4 and can’t get it? Why does China get a new generation model and not the US? It has NOTHING to do with Mary being a woman…… it has everything to do with the direction and management. The other top GM executives need to evaluated and set packing based on performance ( of course we can’t hurt anyone’s feelings anymore).
I can only think of 3 sectors gm dominates versus the competition- full size SUVs and 2-seat sports cars.
Other segments:
-Pony car- nonexistent
-Midsize sedans- soon to be nonexistent
-Wrangler/Bronco competitor- nonexistent
-Full size van- uncompetitive
They sell a few full size pick ups here and there too….and as much as I don’t like them they do pretty well with crossovers.
What ever Mary’s salary is it is too much !!!
In other words, ISS is consistent with their desire to prevent executives from receiving pay increases. GM isn’t the first company they’ve targeted for this.