The story is not getting much attention, but it should be.
Total compensation for automobile CEOs went up 11 percent last year. And the pay and other compensation for other top bureaucrats in the auto business was up 20 percent.
Yes, 20 percent, at a time when workers are being told to make concessions, to retire early, to take job cuts.
The 20 percent figure comes from a survey by Watson Wyatt, reported in the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday (August 19, 2008).
In typical Free Press business reporting fashion, the story focuses on the remarkable restraint that auto companies are showing in giving their CEOs pay raises of only 4 percent. The total compensation figures of 11 percent and 20 percent are buried down in the story. There were no comments from workers in the story.
Everybody wants to see merit pay for teachers. How about merit pay for auto execs?
Here are the higlights of the study, which soon will disappear from the Free Press' website:
"Key findings
"Watson Wyatt's automotive survey found:
"• Salaries and bonuses increased more for non-CEO executives than they did for CEOs in 2007.
"• Stock options are decreasing overall.
"• Compensation is increasingly tied to financial targets.
"Automotive executive pay -- by the numbers
"In its study of the top executives at 70 auto-industry companies, Watson Wyatt found that compensation grew less, on average, for the top bosses than for their top lieutenants.
"4% salary increase for automotive CEOs in 2007.
"24% of automotive CEOs not paid a bonus for 2007.
"$2.7 million, median automotive CEO total direct compensation, defined as base salary, target annual incentive and long-term incentives.
"11% increase in auto CEOs' total direct compensation.
"20% increase in other top auto executives' total direct compensation, to a median of $975,000.
"Source: Watson Wyatt"
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