Bill Ford’s $17 Million Payday

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Bill Ford’s $17 Million Payday

© Kativ / E+ via Getty Images

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain snubbed Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford. Fain was supposed to attend a negotiation between the two parties but decided that he would not meet with car company royalty. Fain wants to negotiate on his terms, not those of Detroit’s senior management. (These CEOs are paid 1,000 times more than their employees.)
[in-text-ad]
Fain has made much out of how Detroit chief executive officers are compensated compared to their workers. These CEOs say most of their compensation is in stock options that do not always pay out, but the gulf remains extreme. Workers should not do what CEOs do, ever. They do not have equivalent responsibilities.
[nativounit]
No matter what the UAW’s opinion of other car executives, Bill Ford’s wealth due to the leadership of the Ford family is almost beyond imagining. It is well into the hundreds of millions of dollars because he owns Ford shares. His family’s is worth over $1 billion. He does not need the $17.5 million he made last year. He is not even the car company’s CEO. However, the CEO, Bill Farley, does work for him, which is unfortunate for Farley.
[wallst_email_signup]
Ford is an example of how enemies of his pay might be thwarted, which he ignores. Many richest CEOs are barely compensated when their base salaries are considered. They want to prove their beliefs that partial ownership of their companies is sufficient for them to become or be wildly rich.
[recirclink id=1249353]
Warren Buffett, whose net worth is almost entirely tied up in Berkshire Hathaway stock, has a base salary of $100,000. He makes money the old-fashioned way by giving shareholders remarkable returns.

Bill Ford missed the opportunity long ago to show his workers and investors that he was all in on Ford’s future. Instead, he made $17.5 million last year. (Plus, the use of Ford private jets.)

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618