DETROIT (WXYZ) - The top executives at General Motors and Chrysler are facing massive pay cuts.
The Obama administration says it will drastically reduce the salaries of top employees at companies that received big government bailouts. GM and Chrysler are being told they must slash the salaries of their top 25 highest paid executives by an average of 90 percent from last year. For many of the executives, the cash they would have received will be replaced by stock that they will be restricted from selling immediately.
In June, the Treasury Department imposed a number of restrictions on automakers and financial institutions that took government loans under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. But Citigroup, Bank of America and the American International Group expected to see their pay and benefits cut much greater than the automakers', government officials said.
Total compensation for the top executives at the seven firms will decline, on average, by about 50 percent, the Associated Press also reported, attributing the information to a person familiar with the administration's decision.