Chrysler’s Top Executives Reaped Handsome Rewards for ’93 Success

Robert J. Eaton says Chrysler Corp. is a fun place to work. And a lucrative place, he might add.

Eaton earned $9.3 million in 1993 as Chrysler’s chairman and chief executive, the company disclosed Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And he wasn’t Chrysler’s highest-paid executive. President Robert L. Lutz collected $9.7 million, thanks largely to $6 million in stock options.

Chrysler’s next three highest executives together collected $12 million, including salaries, bonuses, stock options and other compensation.

The company said the whopping executive compensation packages reflect Chrysler’s strong performance in 1993--record sales and operating profit and vast improvements in quality, customer satisfaction and market share.

“It’s pay for performance,” company spokeswoman Rita McKay said.

In the view of the United Auto Workers union, however, it was excessive.

“They don’t learn, do they?” UAW spokesman Frank Joyce said.

Chrysler’s union members and some white-collar workers recently got profit-sharing checks of $4,300 each, roughly 10% of their average annual pay. Eaton’s compensation amounted to more than four times what he made in 1992; Lutz’s was double.

Lee Iacocca--paid $12.2 million in 1992, his last year as chairman--remains on Chrysler’s payroll as a $500,000-a-year consultant, the company said. He also gets office space, a staff and use of corporate aircraft.

Executive compensation experts said the Chrysler executives’ pay was not out of line with comparable manufacturing companies and was properly tied to performance.

In fact, Chrysler said its base salaries are below the average of similar companies, but its incentive compensation level is among the highest.