Periodically, public outrage pops up over the lavish pay packages of corporate executives. Last week was one of those times—with an unusual twist: General Motors faced criticism based on allegations that Mary Barra, its new chief executive officer and the first woman to lead a U.S. automaker, wasn’t being paid enough. It was, for a brief time, cited as evidence that the gender pay gap persists, even at the highest echelons of corporate America.
The numbers seemed flawed from the get-go, as Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Sheelah Kolhatkar made clear, since they didn’t include stock awards tied to company performance. On Monday GM released further details to make it clear that Barra will be quite well paid: She could make as much as $14.4 million this year.
