Elon Musk Weighs In On CEO Pay Again — Now, Takes Aim At GM's Mary Barra's Salary

Just under a month after warning against Lucid Group Inc. LCID CEO Peter Rawlinson's salary, Elon Musk weighed in on General Motors Co. GM CEO Mary Barra's pay on Friday.

What Happened: Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Corporate compensation should be proportionate to success, just like it is for pro sports.”

The Tesla Inc TSLA CEO was responding to an X user and Tesla enthusiast who alleged that Barra has created zero value for the company’s shareholders over her tenure as CEO.

“Why is she worth over $20M/yr? If she's worth >$20M/yr, no shit the blue collars want more money,” the user wrote in a post, hinting at the ongoing workers’ strike against the company for better pay and incentives.

General Motors’ shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2010. Roughly three years later, in January 2014, Barra took up the role of the CEO. General Motors shares have dropped 3.7% year-to-date and closed at $32.58 on Friday.

Why It Matters: Earlier this month, Musk also issued a warning against Lucid CEO, Rawlinson. "Beware any company where leadership compensation is not linked to performance,” Musk had written then. Rawlinson was formerly the chief engineer for Tesla‘s Model S.

According to data from Equilar CEO Compensation Survey, Rawlinson's total compensation touched $379 million in 2022 — 11 times more than Barra who had a total compensation of about $34 million.

James Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Co F ranks third among automaker CEOs in terms of their total compensation with $18 million.

Musk's Pay Package: Musk, meanwhile, took no salary from the company in 2022. However, this is only because the CEO has taken no cash salary from the company since 2019 when he took $23,760.

Musk, instead, holds shares in Tesla and options that grant him the right to purchase more at a fraction of the price if the company hits particular financial targets.

As of the end of 2022, Musk owned more than 423 million shares of the EV maker, representing a 13.4% stake in the company. Tesla stock closed at $244.88 per share on Friday, up 19,031.25% since listing.

Musk is also presently the richest person in the world with a net worth of $248.7 billion as per Forbes‘s real-time billionaires list.

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