How much do automaker CEOs make?
Other than a professional athlete, perhaps, no job title conjures images of obscene wealth like that of CEOs. Sitting in the big chair of a big company means big bucks. But to figure out just how much the bosses of automakers like Ford, Tesla, and Stellantis make, you need to look way past base salaries.
From Ford to Stellantis and Tesla, automaker CEOs make big bucks
So, just how much do the bosses of the biggest car brands on the planet take home? In short: it’s a lot. Last year, Ford Motor Company head Jim Farley took home around $24.9 million. And that was a decrease of 6.1% from his 2023 compensation package. But that’s his whole compensation package. Like other employees of the Blue Oval, Farley has a salary.
Mind you, it’s not small potatoes. The Ford boss’s base pay as of 2024 was $1.7 million, per The Detroit News. Elsewhere in Michigan, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who has headed GM since 2014, brought home around $29 million in 2022. It’s a 34% increase from pre-COVID levels and represents one of the largest paychecks in the auto industry. Though it’s not exactly a paycheck, more a compensation package that includes nearly $15 million in stock grants.
It’s not just the United States, either. Oliver Blume, the head of both Volkswagen Group and Porsche, reportedly took home $7.9 million in 2022. Although that could change. Blume has faced multiple calls to give up the helm of one of the brands and focus on either Porsche or VW Group.
At Stellantis, CEO Carlos Tavares made around $24.9 million in that same year. However, very little of that compensation was base pay. According to the BBC, Tavares’s base salary accounted for 9% of that sum, or around $2.2 million. It’s all stock performances and compensation packages.
Take Elon Musk, the controversial head of Tesla, and how he makes his considerable fortune. Musk is the wealthiest person on Earth, but very little of that wealth comes from a base salary at Tesla or SpaceX. Instead, his money is tied largely to how Tesla’s stock is performing. As of 2024, Musk owned around 12% of the electric vehicle marque and a whopping 42% of SpaceX.
