Feds to keep automaker execs’ pay private

[rickaren]

Feds to keep automaker execs’ pay private

Posted Thursday, Aug 13, 2009, 3:51 pm in Employee News

The Obama administration will not make public the detailed compensation plans for the highest employees at seven companies that have accepted bailout loans, The Detroit News reported.

General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC, GMAC Inc. and Chrysler Financial are among the seven in the process of submitting compensation plans for their top 25 executives by Friday, and will outline proposals for their top 100 execs in the coming months, the paper said. The four auto sector companies have received more than $80 billion in taxpayer loans, though Chrysler Financial has repaid its $1.5 billion loan, the News said.

Chrysler Group LLC, the post-bankruptcy automaker, said in a statement Wednesday that it will meet the requirement to file a compensation plan, yet “strive to respect our employees’ privacy by maintaining the confidentiality of individual compensation information,” the story said.

The Obama administration’s special adviser on executive compensation at the companies, Kenneth Feinberg, will review the pay proposals over the next two months and may revamp any of them, the News said.

Amid reports that some banks plan to award tens of billions in bonuses, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday that “the plans should reward long-term growth instead of short-term profit-taking … and, most importantly, make absolutely certain that financial institutions will never again play Russian roulette with the American taxpayers,” the story said. (The Detroit News)