What Is Wrong With This Picture? Toyota President Only Earned $2.84 Million In 2014

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda earned 352 million yen ($2.84 million) in total compensation last year after his bonus doubled to about $2 million, the company said in a regulatory filing today.

Toyoda received a bonus of 249 million yen in the year ended March, up from 127 million yen in the previous year. His base salary was unchanged.

Toyoda's compensation is roughly a third of what Nissan Motor Co. paid CEO Carlos Ghosn in the same period. Ghosn told shareholders on Tuesday he splits his time equally between Nissan and French alliance partner Renault SA, which he also heads.

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TheSteve - 6/24/2015 10:34:11 AM

+1 Boost

We don't know the whole story. Just a few examples of how execs can receive more benefits that don't show up as salary are:
(1) Stock options
(2) Bonuses
(3) Interest-free loans that are forgiven (written off) a few years later
(4) Living in a company house, company healthcare, company vacations, etc.

That aside, it's a well documented fact that if we look at CEO's total compensation packages, and value those as a multiple of average employee income, we quickly notice that the US's CEOs do extremely well compared to many other countries.

USNA1999 - 6/24/2015 10:53:40 AM

+1 Boost

I love all these headlines, "CEO earns a $1 salary" but they fail to mention that he/she are getting $100 million in stock options.

nguyenvuminh - 6/24/2015 11:02:37 AM

+4 Boost

I am reasonably confident in saying the so called $100 million (or even $50mm) stock options is more of a US thing given my 10 years working in Asia and working with European and Australian colleagues and external auditors. The CEO getting $2mm to $4mm in total compensation is more of the norm in the rest of the world and not an exception whereas in the US, this would be considered to be pittance. We tend to look at things through our lens as if ours is the norm and that is usually not the case.

valhallakey - 6/24/2015 7:06:47 PM

+1 Boost

Absolutely right on. No country in the world comes close to rewarding their CEOs like we do in the US. Even when they do a lousy job they get huge bonuses, stock options etc..., I think this story is probably correct as it states his total compensation including stock dividends is about $10M. I believe the US CEOs were around double this in total compensation.