Following the lead of Chrysler LLC’s CEO, Robert Nardelli, Ford Motor Company’s chief, Alan Mulally, and General Motors’ Rick Wagoner said today that they will accept $1 annual salaries in order to help turn around their companies. Wagoner’s salary appears to be effective immediately, whereas Mulally’s is contingent on the $25 billion federal loan.
Wagoner’s 2007 salary was $1.65 million and he’s set to receive $2.2 million this year. Wagoner’s salary has dropped almost every year since he took the CEO position at General Motors in 2008 and his salary is notably lower than CEOs of similarly-sized companies, not to mention Mulally’s.
Ford ’s Mulally received $49.9 million in 2006 and 2007 – $21 million of which was given to him last year. He will only take the salary cut if Ford has access to the emergency loan money, however.
Mulally has said before that Ford will seriously consider executive compensation limits as a part of its bid for the federal funds.
Previously, Mulally had been unwilling to cut his salary.
“I think I’m OK where I am,” he told the Wall Street Journal about two weeks ago.
All three executives have been encouraged by Washington politicians to cut their own spending of company budgets, leading Nardelli and GM’s Rick Wagoner to fly to Washington commercially rather than on private jets. Mulally chose to drive a Ford hybrid vehicle from Dearborn, Michigan, to Washington.
