General Motors Co Chief Executive Dan Akerson earned $7.7 million in cash and stock in 2011, the year the automaker reclaimed its global sales crown and boosted its annual profit by 62 percent, GM said in a proxy filing on Thursday.
During his first full year as CEO, Akerson earned a $1.7 million salary, GM said in a proxy filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The rest of his compensation, nearly $6 million, came in the form of salaried and restricted stock units. In 2010, Akerson earned about $2.5 million in cash and stock.
Last year, GM sold more vehicles than any other automaker in the world and reached a labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union that helped maintain its lower break-even level.
Still, GM's shares fell 45 percent last year, while the broader S&P 500 index was unchanged. Among investors' concerns was GM's troubled Opel unit in Europe, where GM lost $747 million last year. GM was also hurt by weakness in South America.
"Although, by objective measures, our 2011 results were an improvement over 2010, they did not compare favorably to some of our key competitors," GM said in the proxy. "This was reflected, in part, in the price of our common stock."
The drop in GM's stock price hurt the value of Akerson's stock-based compensation. Akerson's could have earned up to $9 million in cash and stock awards, according to the proxy.
Compensation of GM executives is governed by a special pay master from the federal government as part of provisions put in place after GM's U.S.-funded bankruptcy restructuring in 2009.
Before GM went public in 2010, the U.S. Treasury had a majority stake in GM. Now the U.S. Treasury owns 32 percent of GM's common shares outstanding.
Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann earned $3.5 million last year, $2.8 million of which came in the form of stock awards.
Steve Girsky, the GM executive charged with overhauling Opel, received $5.3 million in compensation, with about $4.7 million coming from stock awards.
Last year, Ford Motor Co's top executive, Alan Mulally, earned nearly $30 million in cash, bonuses and stock options. Sergio Marchionne, head of Chrysler Group LLC , declined a salary and a bonus for 2011.
But Marchionne was paid 14.5 million euros ($19.2 million) by Italian automaker Fiat SpA, the majority owner of Chrysler.
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