Work hard and you’ll be rewarded probably means more to CEOs than any other person holding a job. Ford CEO Jim Farley saw his annual compensation jump 93% in 2021, his first full year at the helm of the automaker.
That translates to $22.8 million for 2021, his first full year as the company’s chief executive officer, according to the company’s annual proxy statement issued March 18. As is the case with most high-ranking executives, Farley’s base salary was a small portion of his overall compensation: $1.7 million.
In addition to that regular paycheck, Farley’s stock awards tripled to about $16 million. In addition to other rewards, he received more than $830,000 for personal aircraft use. Farley was alone in seeing compensation gains.
Farley also received a performance bonus of $3.7 million.
He — along with Executive Chairman Bill Ford and CFO John Lawler — received a “pandemic response award” totaling $685,319. Ford and Lawler received $181,229 and $405,000, respectively for the award.
Other top execs
The aforementioned Bill Ford saw his compensation rise as well, increasing about 16% for 2021. Like Farley, he draws a salary of $1.7 million, which did not change for the year. His stock awards came in at about $13.8 million, more than twice the previous year’s result, as well as more than $1.7 million for aircraft use and security.
Lawler’s compensation rose 60% last year to a total of $9.4 million, including a specially calculated performance bonus for his “exceptional performance” during a difficult year, the compensation committee noted in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hitting targets, getting paid
In fact, Ford executives surpassed 135% of their business performance targets in 2021, compared to just 23% in 2020. The goals met or beaten included cash flow, quality and pretax earnings, despite dealing with the ongoing issues with the semiconductor shortages.
The results were easy to see, as the company reported net income of $17.9 billion for all of 2021 on revenue of $136.3 billion — a marked turnaround from 2020.
The automaker reported its fourth quarter and full-year results, and a strong final quarter brought the year home. Fourth-quarter results include revenue of $37.7 billion, net income of $12.3 billion, adjusted EBIT of $2 billion.
Based on initial earnings guidance, it looks like Farley and other top execs can expect to be well compensated in 2022 as well, as the company offered its full-year 2022 guidance with its adjusted EBIT to be between $11.5 billion and $12.5 billion — a 15% to 25% improvement compared to 2021.
