The administration’s pay czar said Tuesday that the top 25 earners at five companies still receiving extraordinary aid from the government’s bailout fund will be paid an average 15 percent less in 2010 than in 2009 under his restrictions.
The companies include troubled auto makers General Motors and Chrysler and insurance giant American International Group.
Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg also said he is asking 419 companies that received bailout money to provide details of compensation they received at the height of the financial crisis at the end of 2008 and early 2009.
Feinberg’s announcement was the administration’s latest effort to deal with public outrage over lucrative pay packages provided to executives at companies receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer support.
Detailing the 2010 pay rules, Feinberg said cash salaries would be capped at $500,000 for 82 percent of the top 25 executives at the five firms. These executives would have to receive any further compensation in stock. Feinberg is seeking to link the executives’ decisions more closely to the success of their companies.
The decisions announced Tuesday followed a pattern of rulings Feinberg made in October. That is when he issued compensation rules for the seven companies receiving the most money from the government’s $700 billion bailout fund.
Feinberg said cash salaries would be cut on average 33 percent from the 2009 levels for the top 25 executives. The total compensation, which includes cash and payments in stock, will drop on average 15 percent, he said.
Since his October pay decisions, two of the biggest companies, Citigroup and Bank of America, have paid back the government support and are no longer covered by his pay guidelines.
The five companies still covered are General Motors and its financing arm, GMAC, Chrysler and its financing arm, Chrysler Financial, and AIG.
