General Motors Co. says new CEO Mary Barra will get a base salary of $1.6 million per year as she takes over the global automaker.
GM said in a filing on Friday that Barra will also be eligible for $2.8 million in short-term incentives. GM has a long-term incentive plan as well that provides the bulk of the pay for its CEOs.
The Detroit company's last CEO, Dan Akerson, had a total 2012 salary of more than $11 million, including a base salary of $1.7 million. GM says Akerson will continue to be paid $1.7 million per year as a GM consultant.
Barra, who started as CEO on Wednesday, has worked at GM since she was 18, and got an engineering degree from what was then known as General Motors Institute.
Barra, GM's product development chief and a 33-year company veteran, was named to the top position in December. She is the first female head of a major U.S. car company.
Since February 2011 Barra, 51, has held what many say is the most important job at GM — senior vice president for global product development. Barra, who joined GM in 1980, is in charge of design, engineering and quality for all of GM’s vehicles across the globe and has shepherded most of the company’s recent new vehicle introductions.
Under her command, GM rolled out brawny new full-size pickup trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, and the Chevrolet Impala full-size car, which earned the highest score for a sedan in testing by Consumer Reports magazine. Its quality scores also rose in surveys conducted by J.D. Power and Associates.
She also led development of the new Chevrolet Corvette and several new Cadillac models.
