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The CEO of American Airlines received compensation valued at $12.3 million last year and will stop drawing a salary and instead be paid entirely in company stock. CEO Doug Parker said Wednesday that the change started immediately and would make his compensation more in line with shareholder interests. American Airlines Group Inc. disclosed his compensation and the other changes in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […] Parker’s deal seems to cut against a trend in CEO pay. Stock grants were attractive just after the financial crisis of 2008 but are less appealing now after a long rally in...

Report Criticizes Treasury for Allowing Pay Packages Worth at Least $1 Million a YearWASHINGTON—The Treasury Department allowed General Motors Co. GM +0.69% and Ally Financial Corp. ALLY +0.43% to give big pay raises to top executives while the firms struggled to exit their federal bailouts, a federal watchdog said Wednesday. The report criticized the Treasury for allowing Ally and GM to pay compensation packages worth at least $1 million in 2013 for all 25 top executives at each company. The companies paid those executives an average of $3 million annually, an increase of 28% from 2009, the report found. The...

China’s president has promised to rein in “unreasonably high” pay for executives at government-owned companies in an apparent effort to mollify public frustration at the wealth of state industry. President Xi Jinping’s announcement, carried by the official Xinhua News Agency, comes as the ruling Communist Party is pressing government officials to cut spending on limousines, banquets and other trappings of office. …

France's finance minister today announced plans to limit executive pay at state-owned companies to €450,000 (US$564,000) a year. He called the measure a matter of justice and morality.The pay cap delivers on a campaign-trail promise by France's new Socialist President François Hollande, who sought to tap widespread public anger over executive salary packages. It will take effect in 2012 or 2013 depending on the company, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said. "Earning €450,000 a year doesn't seem to me a deterrent if we want to have quality men and women at the head of our companies," Moscovici told a press conference...

Shareholders should have the power to curb bosses' pay and set caps on executive bonuses, the European Union's top regulatory official said on today (16 May), adding to pressure on banks and companies over excessive management pay deals. The plan from Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner in charge of regulation, could pave the way for a pan-EU law next year that would give investors legal clout to take on Europe's executive elite over pay. "For all listed companies, I support transparency and increased shareholder responsibility ... for example ... mandatory shareholder vote on remuneration," Barnier said in a statement. There...

It's unprecedented for the nation to be outraged about corporate pay, right? Not exactly: In the 1930s, as the Depression gripped the nation, furor about compensation rose to fever pitch, and Washington applied shears to salaries. In an article soon to be published in the University of Richmond Law Review, Harwell Wells, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, says the decade exposed "deep tensions" about the issue. A big difference between then and now is that the 1930s fury was directed not at financial institutions but rather at "excessive" payers among industrial and consumer companies -- like Bethlehem...

One day after he rocked Wall Street by slashing the pay of top executives at banks with federal bailout money, Treasury pay czar Kenneth Feinberg said Thursday that he hoped his cuts would prompt other companies to act on their own and rein in excessive compensation. “I’d like to think that these standards will be voluntarily picked up across the marketplace,” Feinberg said to a packed pen-and-pad briefing for reporters. At the same time, he said he was aware of the legal limits of his authority. “I have a very limited mandate here,” he said. Speaking publicly for the first...

Even as President Obama vowed last week that he's "a strong believer" in the free market, he and his DC pals were moving to undermine it. The most troubling sign: The Wall Street Journal's story about a Federal Reserve plan to play a role in setting pay for tens of thousands of bank workers nationwide. That alone makes hair stand on end. But Americans might have shuddered -- or scratched their heads, anyway -- even as Obama was giving his big speech on the need for financial regulation. "We've worked closely with leaders in the Senate and the House," the...

It started with executives of companies recieving government money. Now Obama and his henchmen want to set pay levels for every executive in America. Unbelievably, there are some people who think this is a GOOD idea. Sam Pizzigati of Too Much online magazine, and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in DC is one of those guys, and he sits down to talk with EC.

The Obama administration is engaged in the most sweeping power grab in modern American history, but few people seem to care. In barely four months, we've witnessed the president and his minions taking over insurance companies, banks, and car companies, forcing private companies to sell off assets, appease unions, and stiff bondholders. Administration officials have insisted some companies take government handouts even if they don't want them and told others they can't pay back the money they've borrowed until the government gives them permission. Now, the president has decided he'll appoint a "compensation czar" whose job it will be to...

It's a conversation, Barney, not a soliloquy . . . Discussing the regulation of executive pay with CNBC's Mark Haines today, the testy liberal Dem from Massachusetts was affronted when Haines tried to get in a word edgewise. Before long, Barney announced that the interview was over, and ripped off his earpiece. Unruffled, Haines got off a good last line: "Fine, goodbye sir. We'll manage without you." View video here.

The Obama administration on Wednesday appointed a compensation czar who will have broad discretion to set the pay for 175 top executives at seven of the nation’s largest companies, which received hundreds of billions of dollars in federal assistance to survive. The mandate given to the new compensation official, Kenneth R. Feinberg, a well-known Washington lawyer, reflects the federal government’s increasingly intrusive role in the corporate affairs of deeply troubled companies. From his nondescript office in Room 1310 of the Treasury building, Mr. Feinberg will set the salaries and bonuses of some of the top corporate executives in America, including...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top bankers walked away from a summit with President Barack Obama pledging broad support for his bank-bailout program and efforts to revive the economy, but the meeting failed to resolve tensions over executive pay and the president's tough rhetoric of recent weeks. The highly unusual meeting, which came after weeks of public feuding between Democrats in Washington and banks, brought President Obama face to face with 15 of the nation's top bank executives, including the heads of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley. All...

Cap and Trade 1. Impose salary CAPS on executives at businesses the government may want to take over 2. Villainize these companies so that their brand is irreparably damaged 3. Divvy them up and TRADE what's left to other investors (especially campaign contributors) as a legacy asset for pennies on the dollar Cap and Trade defined

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said. The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Barack Obama's first foreign summit meeting in early April. Increasing oversight of executive pay has been under consideration for some time, but the decision was made in recent days as public fury over bonuses has spilled into the regulatory effort. Officials said that the administration was still debating the details of...

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a plan to overhaul financial regulation, the New York Times reported.

The following are comments from the market on the new plan: LAUREN SMITH, BRUYETTE & WOODS "There is certainly a possibility" of talent flight from the big firms to the smaller investment banks ... MARK POERIO, PARTNER, LAW FIRM PAUL HASTINGS "I think it is going to warp the talent pool ... If you have someone who was making well over $1 million, and now they are capped at $500,000, it is very conceivable that they are going to look to go to a company not subject to those limitations. DAVID KOTOK, CIO AT CUMBERLAND "This is pure political grandstanding....

Breaking News - Republican officials say the Bush administration will accept executive-pay curbs as part of the bailout. President Bush plans to address the nation Wednesday at 9:01 p.m. EDT on the financial crisis.

As luck would have it, AMR Corp. couldn't have picked a worse time to reward its top people with company stock. American Airlines Inc., its principal subsidiary, is coming off a week with 3,300 flights canceled due to inadequate inspections and modifications. And Wall Street analysts expect AMR to report a quarterly loss of around $300 million Wednesday, the parent company's worst first quarter in five years. On top of all that, the company's stock price is trading near four-year lows – less than one-fourth the price 15 months ago. Still, the company this week is set to distribute around...

The state auditor is criticizing the California State University's practice of giving large salary increases to top executives and awarding outgoing administrators hefty paychecks for doing almost no work. The audit urges the CSU board of trustees to change its policies. It says some administrators benefited from questionable compensation, moving reimbursements and deals to purchase homes near universities. State lawmakers sought the audit after media reports that the trustees gave more than $4 million to departing executives over 10 years - despite their doing little work. Trustees defended the CSU's compensation practices by saying they are needed to attract the...