Don't Cry for me America... GM's former CEO Rick Wagoner to Receive $20m Retirement

While we feel the pain for any basic employee -white or blue collar, doesn't matter- that loses his or her job, somehow we don't feel the same for high-ranking execs. As it was revealed today by ABC News, GM's outgoing CEO Rick Wagoner who was ousted from his position by Barack Obama (read more here) is eligible for a massive $20.2 million retirement package. See, while the Treasury Department does not allow GM from paying severance to Wagoner or any other senior exec, the former CEO is entitled to retirement benefits from the company...

And mind you, this does not include other benefits such as cars for life, free air travel and secretarial services, not to mention the fact that over his 16-year long reign as a high-ranking GM exec, Wagoner received a whopping US$63 million, according to an analysis of company data by compensation analysts Equilar, Inc.

Heck, with that kind of retirement plan, feel free to fire me whenever and as many times you want... Just to give you an idea of what $20.2 million means, if you got paid $1,000 a day, it would take you approximately 55 and-a-half years (including weekends and holidays) without spending a dime to gather this amount of money.

However, it should be noted that according to Dave Schmidt, an executive compensation analyst with James F. Reda and Associates, there is a possibility that Wagoner might end up getting much less if GM goes into bankruptcy.

In an email sent to ABC from GM spokeswoman Julie M. Gibson, it was pointed out that Wagoner's retirement "will be paid out as an annuity over five years, the remainder is a small lifetime annuity". This comes to around $4m a year. However, on a follow up email sent after ABC published the story, Gibson said that " the specifics on any compensation entitled to, or actually paid to Mr. Wagoner are still being reviewed."

Nevertheless, as GM said in an official statement, "Wagoner has worked for GM for nearly 32 years and he is entitled to certain vested awards, deferred comp and pension and other post retirement benefits", meaning that the company's former CEO will one way or another receive a significant amount of money.

Source: ABC News , Via: Truthaboutcars