Barra received a raise last year after meeting her performance targets, a shift from 2023 when her compensation fell by 4%
In Margin Call, the 2011 film loosely based on the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis (and well worth watching if you haven’t), Jeremy Irons’ character sums up the business world in one memorable line:
“There are three ways to make money in business: be first, be smarter, or cheat.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra didn’t climb to the top by cutting corners. As the first woman to lead a Detroit Big Three automaker, her rise wasn’t about symbolism—it was about delivering results. She didn’t cheat, and she’s clearly not coasting on luck. By process of elimination, that leaves us with one conclusion: she’s the smart one.
Whatever the strategy, it’s working. Barra earned $29.5 million last year—a 6% increase over 2023. According to Indeed, the median salary for a GM employee in the same year was $95,111, meaning Barra brought in roughly 310 times that amount.
That figure comes from GM’s annual executive compensation report, filed with the SEC last Friday. The report attributes Barra’s raise to her hitting multiple performance targets and helping GM post record profits.
After a dip in 2023—when her compensation dropped 4% to $27.8 million due to unmet shareholder value goals—Barra bounced back to become the highest-paid CEO among Detroit’s Big Three.
Breaking Down the Numbers
The 63-year-old’s compensation was divided as follows:
- $2.1 million in base salary (unchanged since 2017)
- $19.5 million in stock awards tied to GM’s strong 2024 performance
- $6.6 million in incentive pay
- $1.2 million in other compensation (benefits, insurance, company cars, etc.)
Wesley Bush, chair of GM’s compensation committee, credited the pay program with helping drive GM’s record profits. He cited “disciplined execution” in GM’s core internal combustion business and smart investments in EV and software as key to the company’s 50% stock surge in 2024—outperforming industry peers.
Still, Bush warned that past wins don’t guarantee future success.
“While we’ve had a great year at General Motors,” he wrote, “we echo something our chair and CEO, Mary Barra, often reminds her team: ‘Don’t mistake progress for winning.’ Your Compensation Committee knows there’s still work to be done—and believes our shareholders will benefit from it.”
Other CEOs, Other Stories
Ford CEO Jim Farley saw his 2024 pay shrink by 6% to $24.8 million after missing key performance targets, particularly on product quality. Recalls continued to plague the company, though to be fair, Ford didn’t top the recall charts this time—Tesla and Stellantis performed even worse.
Over at Stellantis, Carlos Tavares stepped down in December after falling short of corporate goals. He still pulled in more than $24 million for the year, a drop from 2023’s $39.5 million, when he earned around 518 times the average Stellantis worker’s pay. For context, the company made $5.8 billion in profit in 2024, but posted a $133 million net loss in the second half—likely a sore point with shareholders.
