VW CEO Receives 41% Pay Raise!

WOLFSBURG, Germany — Volkswagen AG chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn’s compensation surged 41 per cent last year, beating the pay given to Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche, as Europe’s biggest carmaker posted record earnings.

Winterkorn earned 9.33 million euros ($12.9 million U.S.) in fixed salary, bonuses and profit incentives compared with 6.6 million euros a year earlier, Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW said Thursday in its annual report. Compensation growth stemmed partly from a new long-term incentive plan introduced in 2010.

The increase makes Winterkorn one of the best-paid executives among companies on Germany’s benchmark DAX Index. Zetsche, who runs the world’s second-biggest maker of luxury cars, earned 8.69 million euros.

Deutsche Bank AG CEO Josef Ackermann was paid 9.55 million euros in 2009. Siemens AG, Europe’s biggest engineering company, paid CEO Peter Loescher almost nine million euros for the year through Sept. 30. Deutsche Post AG, the region’s largest postal service, said Thursday that CEO Frank Appel’s compensation in 2010 totalled 2.96 million euros.

Volkswagen’s earnings before interest and taxes last year almost quadrupled to a record 7.14 billion euros. The manufacturer is proposing a 2010 dividend of 2.20 euros per common share and 2.26 euros per preferred share. VW’s supervisory board extended Winterkorn’s contract in January by five years until 2016.

Pay for Volkswagen’s eight-member management board almost doubled to 36.7 million euros from 18.7 million euros.


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Agent009 - 3/10/2011 2:04:00 PM

0 Boost

"i" before "e" except after "c".. I'll correct his spelling.

The pic? Well I might be doing that after a 41% raise as well.

LexSucks - 3/10/2011 5:33:43 PM

+10 Boost

If the title read "VW Employees Receive a 41% Pay Raise!" then there would be about 100 posts here complaining about the pay raise.

Mention a CEO getting a raise and all we get are replies correcting the grammar of the article.

Wow!!! Americans are OK with CEO’s taking us to the cleaners. But give an average worker a raise and folks here are ready to say that they shouldn’t get a dime. CEOs and corporations have the American mind brainwashed beyond belief to where a CEO earning a bazzilion dollars doesn’t even register in anyone’s mind.

JRobUSC - 3/10/2011 7:56:24 PM

+1 Boost

I agree they're getting paid crazy money, and as a "regular worker" myself I'm all for spreading the wealth to us little people. But this guy led his company to a $12 billion profit last year. Good for him. I don't know what the "fair" amount of compensation is for that, but does he not deserve his $12 million as much or more than a pro athlete getting paid $30 million for eight months of work, or a kid straight out of college who has never even played a pro game getting a guaranteed $50 million for being the #1 pick in the draft, or an actor getting $20 million to make a movie? If you want to go after execs for making lots of money that's fine, but personally my focus would be on the banking and financial sectors. You know, the ones who broke the economy, bankrupted their companies and millions of people, got bailed out with tax money from the millions of people they screwed over, and then paid themselves astronomical sums. Those are the CEO's I have problems with.

uaw_lax - 3/11/2011 12:14:21 AM

+3 Boost

What did he do? Did he break a sweat doing it? will the workers get some reward for the corporations success? HA!

truckman - 3/13/2011 7:15:01 PM

+1 Boost

I must agree with both of you, lexs... and Rjob....You said it all.

610looper - 3/13/2011 11:56:30 PM

+1 Boost

Those actors and actresses, ball players etc...have to prove themselves on screen or court or field and the case of the sportsman, the team owner will and is definitely getting their share of monies. It's the little man that makes the company, it's the nurse, the construction worker, etc..

Anyway, back to the topic...punctuation, really???