Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) filed its preliminary proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Friday morning. The most engaging metric in the filing is the ratio of what the company paid its president and chief executive, Jim Hackett, compared to the median pay for all employees. For 2018 that ratio was 276 to 1.
Many analysts say Hackett has done a very poor job. Ford’s stock price has dropped since he took his position. He does have, however, a plan to turn Ford around.
Hackett was paid $17.75 million in 2018, up just over 10% from his compensation in 2017. In 2017, Ford stock closed the year down less than 1% while the S&P 500 rose by more than 19%. Last year, Ford stock dropped nearly 40%, compared to a drop of about 7% in the S&P 500. Hackett took over the role of CEO in May 2017. In 2017, Hackett was one of America’s 100 highest paid CEOs.
Excluding about 7,700 non-U.S.-based employees, Ford’s median full-time pay rose from $58,693 in 2017 to $64,316 last year, an increase of about 9.6%. Employee compensation includes an incentive bonus of approximately $7,600 paid to the company’s 56,000 United Auto Workers members in North America.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) has not yet reported 2018 compensation data for its CEO and board chair, Mary Barra. In 2017, Barra was paid a total of $21.96 million, some 295 times median compensation for the company’s other employees.
Including Ford’s $13 million compensation to Executive Chair William Ford, the company paid a total of $31.6 million to its top leaders last year, about $10 million more than Barra’s 2017 compensation package for filling the same two roles.
At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) Chair John Elkann was paid $1.92 million in 2018, according to the company’s recently filed proxy statement. The sudden death of CEO Sergio Marchionne in July scrambled the reporting of the company’s executive pay. New CEO Mike Manley earned $680,434 for the final six months of last year, with the possibility of a total 2019 compensation package totaling $14 million. Because FCA is headquartered in Italy, the company does not have to report the ratio of CEO-to-median employee compensation.
Ford’s preliminary proxy statement on Schedule 14A is available at the SEC website.
The company’s stock traded down about 0.4% Friday morning to $8.38, in a 52-week range of $7.41 to $12.15. The 12-month consensus price target on the stock is $9.27.
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