Wagoner to get $23M; successor gets pay cut

WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration tries to rein in sky-high executive compensation at firms that are getting billions in taxpayer funds, ousted General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is due to walk away with a pension and benefits that total $23 million.

Wagoner, whose company is on tap to get a nearly $30 billion bailout to help it restructure, is unaffected by the cap on compensation that's now levied on banks, other financial firms and is expected to be extended to the automakers.

In tapping a successor to Wagoner, the Obama administration turned to another GM insider, but president and operating chief Frederick "Fritz" Henderson could see his pay fall to $500,000. Since 2006, Henderson has earned total compensation of $14.5 million, according to GM reports.

Wagoner's pension payments are being preserved even as those of rank-and-file GM workers are more at risk after President Obama suggested bankruptcy is a way to save the firm.

The Obama administration in early February put a $500,000 cap on executive compensation for any financial institutions that receive Treasury Department aid during the current economic crisis. The restrictions also prohibit bonuses, except restricted stock that vests after taxpayers have been fully repaid.

Administration officials, who weren't authorized to speak on the record, said Monday that similar restrictions will apply to GM and Chrysler if a restructuring plan gives them more federal money.

Wagoner's pay was exempted because the limits didn't apply retroactively and initially were limited to financial institutions. According to GM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he earned $14.4 million in total compensation in 2007 and $5.4 million in 2008.

Wagoner, 56, had agreed to work for a salary of $1 this year, while Henderson took a 30 percent cut from his $1.7 million salary in 2008. GM executives have received no bonuses for the past three years because those awards were tied to GM's stock, which has plummeted, closing at $2.70 a share Monday.

Despite being forced to resign, Wagoner, a 32-year GM veteran, is to receive $22.1 million in pension benefits paid over his remaining years, $535,000 in deferred compensation and $367,000 in vested performance awards, according to GM's annual report.

Under the terms of the government's $13.4 billion in loans to GM last fall, Wagoner couldn't receive a severance package — often dubbed a "golden parachute" — upon being forced to quit.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said there's no agreement "that would provide him with any special benefits upon severance."