General Motors Co. and GMAC’s second-highest tier of executives are limited to salaries of $500,000 and are prohibited from receiving bonuses unrelated to performance under Treasury Department guidelines.
The goal of the limits set December 11 by Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury’s special master for executive compensation, is to focus executives on long-term gains and financial stability rather than short-term growth, it said in a statement.
Feinberg already had set limits for the top 25 executives at GM, GMAC, Chrysler Group and Chrysler Financial. The new limits apply to the next 75 highest-paid executives.
At least 50 percent of each second-tier executive’s total compensation must be held for at least three years.
In most cases executives’ cash salary is to be limited to 45 percent of the total. Any cash incentives are to be delivered over two years, eliminating large lump-sum cash bonuses, the Treasury said.
The four companies’ compensation committees, under rules set by the government, identified about 12 executives who qualified as exceptions to the $500,000 limit.
Chrysler and Chrysler Financial weren’t affected by the limits because few of their lower-ranking executives were paid more than half a million dollars.
Filed by Neil Roland of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
Stay informed and connected. Get human resources news and HR features via Workforce Management’s Twitter feed or RSS feeds for mobile devices and news readers.
