Ford CEO Gets $18.5M Upfront, $2M Salary

[Jayhawkk]

Ford Motor Co.'s new chief executive will get an annual base salary of $2 million and an immediate payout of $18.5 million for taking the job

Ford also granted Mulally 4 million stock options and 600,000 restricted stock units.

Ford and other U.S. automakers have been battered by rising health care and material costs, tough competition from Asia and, recently, the rapid decline of the market for pickups and sport utility vehicles _ high-margin products that for years have sustained their bottom lines.

The restructuring first announced in January calls for cutting 30,000 jobs and closing 14 facilities by 2012.

Yeah, Health care and tough competition is really killing em. Now i'm sure every part plays some role in all the problems. I've owned two fords recently and both gave me nothing but problems while a 1993 Honda civic has given me none with 140k miles. In my opinion that problem needs to be resolved before anyone is worth 2 million a year base salary.

Rest of the story

 

[Pitbull954]

I have pretty much always bought Fords, but after my lease is up I'm going to the dark side and buying a freaking Honda! Much better MPG and resale!

 

[brk_nemesis]

wow 18.5 million, they should decide not to give him any $ intil they can make fords h\just as relible as imports. oh wait that will nvr happen, thats why they will eventually go banckrupt in 20 yrs

 

[Rodja]

It is no wonder that Ford is behind when it comes to R&D. It seems that domestic auto makers keep f'ing up while imports are taking over the car market. My first car was a ford, but now I will only own a Japanese car for reliablility and resale value.

 

[jminis]

I think people are fools if they choose to buy fords anymore. No reason to go with "Domestic" especially since most aren't made in the US anymore and they are complete junk. I have a honda now and I love it.

 

[FitnFirm]

I had a ford explorer with 30300 miles on it and blew a rod right thru the side of the engine, darn me I had to buy a new engine to turn it in on my lease cause it was 300 miles over warranty. FORD BLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tsc]

In the grand scheme of things, CEO salaries and benefits (for companies this size) aren't much of an impact to the bottom line. I don't think they deserve that much, and for a struggling company its just more insult to injury for the employees that have lost their jobs or facing loss of benefits etc. Regardless, if they paid him $50,000 a year with little benefits, the company would still be in the same situation.

Throwing money at a company's leader is not the answer. Give him a huge bonus if he can turn things around, keep employees and customers happy, and make a good profit.

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[Viperspit]

Excellent point. I work for a major automitve company currently under Chapter 11 protection. We have just filed out final restructruing plan to come out of Chap. 11 in the next 90 days. We have gone thru several CEO's which have really netted us nothing more than additional salary expense and bonus burden. There is no risk on these CEO's behalf, they get lock solid contracts for 1-3 years, hell half of them are even performance based contracts. It's a freakin shame, and it's only going to get worse. You will see another round of Chapter 11 filings in the Automotive market early next year....

Throwing money at a company's leader is not the answer. Give him a huge bonus if he can turn things around, keep employees and customers happy, and make a good profit.

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[tsc]

I don't have the time to list all of the unbelievable things that have happened at the company I work for.. but fortunately our division was sold to another company (which so far seems to be a better deal for all of us). The ceo of my former employer has made more $ (in the millions) by deliberating letting/driving divisions to fail one by one then sell them off. I still don't know how he gets away with it, but its well known (but not published of course) that his intention is to break the entire company down and sell each division, then retire. More money to fail then succeed.. thats encouraging. meanwhile, our plant has lost about 1/3 of its employees of which two have been replaced. Most either quit, retired, transfered over the last 4 years or so! Only two of them actually were fired. We had a guy retire right before the change over: We worked 41 years for this company and his going away present has a $100 gift card AND THEY ASKED ALL OF THE EMPLOYEES TO CHIP IN TOWARDS THE "COMPANY" GIFT!!! I don't know if any they actually spent a dime on one of their best employees who spent most of his life working here.

It just amazes me that so much is done to discourage people from performing their best, and yet the people that do this are baffled as to why productivity is on a constant decline. It goes for all employees, if you give a man millions ahead of time, what is his incentive to do anything. He is set for life now, and will not be adversely affected if the company loses everything. (of course, he'll sell all of his stock options first ). Everyone needs to have a goal and motivation to do the work that EARNS them a reward.. whatever it is.

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[Jayhawkk]

I agree with ya completely and that's why the public announcement of something like this is just a slap in the face to both the consumer who believes they are getting inferior products and the employees who are having to agree to lose out on pension plans etc.

 

[Apowerz6]

And to think they just cut almost 500 jobs in the chicago plant, and this FUcface gets a 2mill salary!

 

[Jayhawkk]

Ford Slashes 10,000 More Jobs, 2 Plants

And it keeps getting better.

 

[fatsuperman]

I'm a capitalist through and through but this crap is obscene

If the Ford thing was a rare exception it would be one thing but this has become the norm

Delphi filed bankruptcy but the execs treated it like a candy store event, slurping up benifits and bonuses while the rank and file were told to take a 1/3rd pay cut.

Meanwhile Wellpoint, and Anthem (formerly Blue Cross Blue shield) Merged after a long dispute with the state of California where the execs refused to be limited to anything less than $250 million in bonuses.

Meanwhile, My pay raises the last three years were swallowed by premium and deductable increases from Anthem. I can't help but wondering how much went to CEO compensation.

One of the board of directors is Susan Bayh who happens to have only one qualification (wife of Senator Bayh). Not a bad gig showing up to 4 meetings a year and getting paid $500,000
'nuff *****ing

 

[CDB]

That's the nature of modern corporations. They have been so mixed up with the government and regs so long they start to run that way. Laws limit their risk to nil and they jerk each other off with pay raises while normal people get ****ed. That's essentially how the government runs. Welcome to State Corporatism.

 

[Jayhawkk]

Every cost of living increase i've received annually has been absorbed by the cost of health insurance alone. pre-tax.

 

[CDB]

Every cost of living increase i've received annually has been absorbed by the cost of health insurance alone. pre-tax.

Welcome to the world of continual inflation.

 

[Jayhawkk]

SHould change it tocost of health insurance increase.

 

[lifthardheavy]

$2m is nothing for a salary of CEO expected to turn around a severely ailing company. The reality is, if you don't offer adequate compensatation then you won't attract someone to make the very hard decisions. This situation is far tougher than joining a company that's already making heaps of profits and pleasing shareholders. besides, it wasn't his fault their cars suck ass.

As for the layoffs, this is the cyclical nature of how US corporations operate. They overhire in times of prosperity then lay off in times of distress. You can prevent layoffs simply by hiring conservatively when times are good. but that also means less wealth to spread around and fewer new jobs during prosperous times. Which is the right way?

p.s. this is another reminder to not depend on a corporation for your livelihood.

 

[lozgod]

I sell Chrysler/Jeep so I am "in the know" in the auto world. Toyota and Honda are more domestic than any of the Big 3 "domestics". Most Civics, Accords, Corollas, Camrys, Tundras, Tacomas, Avalons, Lexus ES300, and a few more are all made in the USA.

 

[fatsuperman]

Yea, I used to work in automotive OEM business...

They are building a Honda plant 25 miles from my house... I'm in skilled trades so my resume will be on there doorstep as soon as they are taking them.

Old timers who remember wwII or folks who worked for the big three try to guilt me for wanting to work for them.

My answer is simple...

The GM, Ford, and Chrysler plants in my area never offered a job to me... I wasn't related to anyone who worked there, so I didn't stand a chance.

Honda will be hiring and they will be doing it based on qualifications.