Detroit Carmakers Paid $1 Billion to CEOs as Auto Wages Slumped

While both arguments have some merit, one fact stands out: The 10 individuals who’ve served as chief executive officers of the companies since 2010 have collected more than $1 billion of compensation. Meanwhile, wages of US auto workers — unionized or not — have declined around 17% in that time frame.

The median worker at GM and Ford earned $80,034 and $74,691 in 2022, respectively. Stellantis, which is based in the Netherlands, paid its average employee €64,328 last year. At both GM and Ford, that puts CEO-to-worker pay ratios higher than the average among the biggest publicly traded US firms, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Stellantis said that it has distributed more than €2 billion in profit-sharing to employees under the current CEO Carlos Tavares.

While the amounts make for good picket-line material, they’re not unique. Corporate boards across industries have for decades doled out bigger and bigger packages to CEOs, leading to a growing divergence between how corporations in the US and beyond have rewarded workers relative to their top bosses.Wages are one of the major sticking points in union negotiations.

GM’s CEO Barra has said the company’s labor costs are already $22 an hour more than electric-vehicle leader Tesla, and that this competitive disadvantage would only grow as a result of the UAW’s asks.Fain has made it part of his mission to undo concessions agreed to during the Great Recession. Among the benefits sacrificed were pensions — any worker hired prior to 2008 has one; anyone who’s joined since doesn’t.

If GM and Ford were to meet the union’s asks, their pension liabilities would double to $242 billion, Man estimates. In the last 20 years, GM, Ford and Stellantis and its predecessors have closed or spun off at least 65 plants, according to the union. The fear is that as EV production and demand picks up, more plants making gas cars and trucks — and the engines and transmissions that power them — will shut.

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