If you sit at the helm of a bailed-out company, then $500,000 is quite enough for your annual salary in 2010.
That’s part of the verdict by White House pay czar Ken Feinberg who unveiled pay scales yesterday for tarnished titans and their top managers at five big firms rescued by Uncle Sam: General Motors, GMAC, American International Group, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.
Feinberg said it was prudent use of taxpayer money to restrict cash payments to $500,000 or less to the 25 top-paid execs at each of the five firms.
Overall, Feinberg’s pay cap affects 82 percent of the top executives at the five firms still under Uncle Sam’s thumb.
At AIG, cash pay was cut by 63 percent from a year earlier, with five executives gaining exemptions to the cap. They included three unidentified executives earning $700,000 in cash and CEO Robert Benmosche, who earns $3 million in cash salary per year.
At GMAC, CEO Michael Carpenter will get stock instead of cash.