It’s been a central argument for the United Auto Workers union: If Detroit’s three automakers raised CEO pay by 40 per cent over the previous 4 years, staff ought to get comparable raises.

UAW President Shawn Fain has repeatedly cited the determine, contrasting it with the six per cent pay raises autoworkers have obtained since their final contract in 2019. He opened negotiations with a requirement for the same 40 per cent wage enhance over 4 years, together with the return of pensions and price of residing will increase. The UAW has since lowered its demand to a 36 per cent wage enhance however the two sides stay far aside in contract talks, triggering a strike.

Fain’s give attention to CEO pay is a part of a rising development of emboldened labor unions citing the wealth hole between staff and the highest bosses to bolster demand for higher pay and dealing situations. In June, Netflix shareholders rejected government pay packages in a nonbinding vote, simply days after the Writers Guild of America wrote letters urging traders to vote in opposition to the pay proposals, saying it will be inappropriate amid Hollywood’s ongoing strike by writers. The WGA wrote comparable letters focusing on the chief pay at Comcast and NBCUniversal.

Fain has pushed again in opposition to arguments {that a} massive pay bump for the union would jack up prices of automobiles and put the Massive Three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (previously Chrysler) — at a drawback in opposition to international opponents with lower-cost workforces within the race to transition to electrical automobiles.

“The explanation we ask for 40 per cent pay will increase is as a result of within the final 4 years alone, the CEO pay went up 40 per cent. They’re already millionaires,” Fain instructed CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “Our calls for are simply. We’re asking for our justifiable share on this economic system and the fruits of our labor.”

CEO pay has ballooned for many years, whereas wages for strange staff have lagged. However did the Massive Three chief executives actually get 40 per cent pay will increase? Not precisely.

“I don’t know the place the 40 per cent got here from,” stated Basic Motors CEO Mary Barra at a brand new convention when requested if the UAW’s numbers had been correct.

Govt pay is notoriously difficult to calculate as a result of a lot of it comes within the type of inventory grants or inventory choices. An in depth take a look at the compensation packages in any respect three corporations reveals how the UAW’s declare each overstates and understates actuality, relying on the view.

Barra, the one one of many three who held the function since 2019, is the very best paid, with a compensation package deal of value $28.98 million in 2022. The one greatest part was $14.62 million in inventory grants, which vest over three years and whose final worth depends upon inventory efficiency and different metrics.

Her pay has elevated 34 per cent since 2019, in accordance knowledge from public filings analyzed for AP by Equilar.

Ford CEO James Farley obtained practically $21 million in complete compensation in 2022, a 21% enhance over the $17.4 million then-CEO Jim Hackett obtained in 2019, in accordance with the corporate’s proxy statements. Farley’s package deal final yr included $15.14 million in inventory awards, which additionally vest over three years with an final worth depending on efficiency.

The place the the comparability will get difficult is at Stellantis, which was fashioned in 2021 with the merger of Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Vehicles and French PSA Group. As a result of it’s a European firm, the best way Stellantis discloses government pay differs considerably from GM and Ford.

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In its annual renumeration report, Stellantis reported CEO Carlos Tavares’ 2022 pay was 23.46 million euros. That’s a virtually 77 per cent enhance over then Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley’s 2019 pay of 13.28 million euros.

These are the numbers utilized by the UAW when it calculated that three automakers have, collectively, elevated CEO pay by 40.1 per cent since 2019, in accordance with the methodology the union offered to The AP.

However there’s a catch: Stellantis’ figures replicate “realized pay,” which embody the worth of beforehand granted fairness that vested in the course of the reporting yr. U.S. corporations, in distinction, use grant date worth of inventory packages awarded to executives in the course of the reporting yr.

In its evaluation, Equilar used the “grant date” technique to make an equal comparability between all three CEOs. By that measure, Tavares’ 2022 compensation was in 21.95 million euros in 2022, together with 10.9 million in inventory awards with a three-year vesting interval.

That’s really 24 per cent decline from Manley’s compensation package deal in 2019, which was 29.04 million euros, in accordance with Equilar.

So, is Tavares actually making lower than Manley was 4 years in the past? Not likely.

That’s as a result of in some years, speaking a couple of CEO’s “realized pay” can obscure exorbitant pay packages permitted by firm boards.

Take Tavares’ 2021 compensation package deal, which included particular incentive award of 25 million euros in money in addition to inventory value 19.56 million euros — all contingent on long-term efficiency objectives — granted to Tavares in recognition of “his important function” in main the corporate by means of the merger.

That one-time award, which got here on prime of hundreds of thousands of extra in common compensation, alone pushed Tavares’ 2021 compensation package deal far above what Manley received in 2019.

Stellantis shareholders voted 52.1 per cent to reject the pay proposal of their annual assembly, although the vote was solely advisory and the board permitted his package deal anyway.

The CEOs of GM and Ford additionally noticed their compensation packages peak in 2021, earlier than declining barely in 2022.

Nonetheless you slice the numbers, the hole between CEO pay and rank-and-file staff in any respect three corporations is gigantic.

At GM, the median employee pay was $80,034 in 2022. It will take that employee 362 years to make Barra’s annual compensation.

At Ford, the place the media pay $74, 691, it will take 281 years.

At Stellantis, with a median pay of 64,328 euros, it will take 365 years, though the corporate famous its its annual report that the disparity contains bills associated to Tavares’ one-time grant. Excluding that, the pay ratio is 298-1.

How excessive that disparity? It depends upon the comparability.

It’s far above the everyday pay hole at S&P 500 corporations, which was 186-1 in accordance with AP’s annual CEO pay survey, which makes use of knowledge analyzed by Equilar.

And it’s astronomical by historic requirements. Based on a research of the 350 largest publicly traded U.S. companies by the left-leaning Financial Coverage Institute, the CEO-to-Employee pay ratio was simply 15-1 in 1965.

The automakers, for his or her half, emphasize that their international opponents pay their staff a lot much less. Together with advantages, staff on the Detroit 3 automakers obtain round $60 an hour, in accordance with Harry Katz, a labor professor at Cornell College. At foreign-based automakers with U.S. factories, the compensation is about $40 to $45.

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Then there’s Tesla.

CEO Elon Musk’s 2022 compensation was reported as zero within the firm’s proxy assertion, rendering its official pay ratio meaningless. After all, that’s as a result of Tesla hasn’t awarded Musk new packages since a 2018 long-term compensation plan that would probably be value greater than $50 billion and is dealing with a authorized problem from shareholders.

However the proxy provides glimpse on the mind-boggling wealth disparity between its nonunion staff and one of many world’s richest males.

The submitting reported Musk’s complete “realized compensation” in 2021 at greater than $737 million. A typical Tesla employee earned $40,723 that yr.

Based on the proxy, for that employee to make Musk’s “realized compensation” that yr, it will take greater than 18,000 years.

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This story has been corrected to replicate Ford’s CEO and his compensation in 2019. The CEO was Jim Hackett, not William Clay Ford, and his compensation was $17.4 million, not $16.76 million.