American Axle CEO Dick Dauch Pockets $14.05m for '07
Ha! So close, yet so far. American Axle CEO Dick Dauch's '07 paycheck– $5.55m salary and a $8.5m bonus– doesn't quite eclipse GM CEO Rick Wagoner's $14.4m compensation. But hey, what's $350k between friends? And, it must be said, that's a lot of money– even if Dauch did break– sorry, "settle" a three-month strike by cutting half of AA's 3,650 member unionized workforce, instituting a two-tier wage system (lowering newbie wages by roughly 50 percent) and "convincing" GM to kick-in $215m to pay for bailouts. As AA's independent compensation committee put it, the bonus "took into account the company's strong financial performance in 2007, the structural transformation achieved under our new labor agreements with the UAW and… Dauch's leadership role in these negotiations." There, that sounds better. Neither the UAW nor American Axle's president (Dauch's son, appointed post-strike) were available for comment. Meanwhile, well done to The Detroit News for not totaling the CEO's compensation for their headline. There's only such much shock and awe Motown can take these days. (P.S. Isn't it amazing how all this big bucks salary stuff comes out during the weekend?)
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
Actually, I think Dauch did a pretty good job this year. Faced with a stubborn union, he stuck to his guns and got the contract the company needed to lower future overhead costs and got some money from GM, and transferred manufacturing to lower cost countries in the process. At the very least you can say he was working aggressively to control costs. What did Rick Wagoner do?
While not "happy" with how much he made this year, at least Dick's company made money. Can the same be said for Rick?
Dick's company could have made $10 million more, if Dick only made 4 million dollars last year. Think of the COMPANY, Dick! 33 years as a working citizen, and I'm still working on my first million -- may death not claim me until I'm in the $1 mil club.