GM CEO Mary Barra Made $23.7M In 2020, Musk Technically Made Nothing

General Motors CEO Mary Barra had the highest executive pay among the Big Three in 2020 by earning $23.7 million. She has a base salary of $2 million but also gets short-term incentives of $3.8 million and $13.1 million in stock, according to Automotive News.

In 2020, Mike Manley was the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before its merger with PSA to become Stellantis, and he made $14.2 million. Ford switched CEOs in October 2020. Jim Hackett, the previous boss, got $16.7 million, and the incoming Jim Farley received $11.8 million last year.

Tesla also announced its executive pay. Elon Musk received no salary in 2020. However, he has reached six of the predetermined milestones in his contract. This gives him the ability to purchase 50.6 million shares of the automaker for $70.01 per share. As of this writing, the company is trading at just below $700 a share, which means that Musk could net around $32 billion by selling the stock, according to Business Insider. Although, his deal stipulates that he must keep the shares for five years before being able to sell.

To compare to the CEOs of other automakers, Ferrari boss Louis Camilleri served the automaker until he suddenly stepped down December 10, 2020, but still made €375,846 ($453,365 at current exchange rates) for the year. Of that €363,960 was his salary and €11,886 in fringe benefits, which included access to a Ferrari company car.

Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius made €1.34 million ($1.6 million) as a salary in 2019 and €3.5 million ($4.2 million) in incentives. In 2020, he took a 20 percent pay cut as part of the automaker's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Automotive News Europe reported.

Information about the CEO salaries of Japanese automakers is more difficult to find. In 2018, Akio Toyoda made ¥379 million ($3.5 million at the current exchange rate).