GM Leader Stempel’s Pay Drops by a Third to $1 Million in ’91

General Motors Chairman Robert Stempel took a 30% pay cut last year, the auto maker’s worst on record, but still earned $1 million.

The company’s 1992 proxy statement to shareholders said Stempel’s compensation dropped from $1.4 million in 1990. In 1989, he earned nearly $1.8 million.

GM posted a 1991 loss of $4.45 billion.

Stempel, who was replaced as chairman of GM’s executive committee last week, has not been awarded a salary increase since becoming chairman and chief executive Aug. 1, 1990.

GM’s top seven executives as a group earned $4.4 million in 1991, down from $7.5 million in 1990 and $11.3 million in 1989. The company’s top 57 executives as a group earned $14.8 million, compared to nearly $23.3 million in 1990 and $39.3 million in 1989.

The proxy said none of the top seven executives received bonus pay in 1991. However, GM’s top 57 executives received options last year to buy 857,465 shares of common stock at $40 a share. Stempel received options to purchase 100,000 shares, also at $40 each. He exercised no options in 1991.

GM shares closed at $39 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, up 37.5 cents.

The only GM executive identified in the latest proxy as having exercised options in 1991 was the chairman of GM Hughes Electronics Corp., Robert Schultz, who realized a net gain of $18,747.

Former GM President Lloyd Reuss had his 1991 pay cut to $725,000 from a little more than $1 million in 1990. John Smith Jr., who replaced Reuss as GM president last week, received $575,000 in 1991, down from $779,000 in 1990.