Who Gets What
In most parts of the world, the salary of an executive is treated with as much secrecy as his sex life. When the British learned last month that British Printing Corp. Chairman Wilfred Harvey pulled down $750,000 a year plus expenses, they were astounded not only by the amount but by the fact that it had become known. The disclosure came after directors of the firm won a battle to force Harvey to resign and relinquish his huge salary, which they called "grotesque." The case raised curiosity about how much and how varied are the incomes of the world's hired executives--those at the top echelons of industry and finance.
The highest salaries go to top U.S. executives, who are required by law to report them, along with bonuses and stock holdings. G.M. Chairman Fred Donner leads the list, with a pre-tax figure of more than $800,000 from salary and stock and cash bonuses. In fact, the ten highest-paid executives in the U.S. are all in the auto industry, including Chrysler President Lynn Townsend (salary plus cash bonus: $555,900) and Ford President Arjay Miller ($515,912). Salaries depend, of course, on a company's size and profitability and an executive's responsibilities. Pure pay runs much higher in the U.S. than for comparable posts elsewhere, but executives abroad enjoy perquisites that often exceed the value of their salaries.
Modest to Generous. In Great Britain, managing directors of the largest companies seldom are paid as much as $90,000 a year in salary; many get less than $20,000. Executive salaries among major industrial companies are rising faster on the Continent than in Britain. In keeping with Sweden's philosophy of a one-class society, executive salaries are generally modest; the average president of a Swedish company with at least 500 employees makes about $30,000. The total income of Sweden's best-known executive, President Curt Nicolin of electric-equipment maker ASEA (for Allmaenna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget), is $120,000, and that of Volvo Boss Gunnar Engellau $75,000.
Top French executives are the most secretive of all, but their pay rarely exceeds $100,000; the government plans to pass a law later this year that would oblige companies to make their top executives' salaries available to selected stockholders--but not to the public. In Italy, the highest caliber executives get between $30,000 and $50,000 a year in salary, plus generous expense accounts; at the top salary level are such executives as Diego Guicciardi, director of Italian Shell, and Vincenzo Cazzaniga, Italian boss of Esso. The average member of the board of management of a big German company may make a salary of about $50,000. The biggest German salaries are in the auto indus try, topped by an estimated $250,000 paid to Daimler-Benz's Walter Hitzinger. Only one German businessman exceeds the magic million-marks-a-year ($250,000) salary ceiling: Christian Kracht, 44, top manager for Press Magnate Axel Springer.
Some of the worst salaries in the West are paid to Latin American executives; a handful receive up to $90,000 and such perqs as European schooling for their children, but the majority are lucky to get as much as $25,000 a year. In Japan, the incomes of most top executives are composed of salary, bonuses and stock options, with the basic salary kept fairly low and the other two used as incentive. Yoshihiro Inayama, president of Yawata Iron & Steel Co., reported a taxable income of $75,000, part of it from his stockholdings in the firm. President Yoshizane Iwasa of Japan's biggest commercial bank, Fuji Bank, had a total taxable income of $38,000, and Chikara Kurata, chairman of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan's biggest corporation, one of $93,500.
Those Extras. The extra benefits are what many foreign executives count on. In France, companies often pay for apartments, domestic staff, yachts and even hunting lodges. Belgian executives, like the French, receive a bonus called tantieme, and their basic salary rarely represents more than a quarter of their total incomes. All big Japanese firms maintain a fleet of foreign, chauffeured cars for the full-time use of their executives, and many top firms pay the living expenses of their top men right down to family clothing and recreation. Cars with chauffeurs also go to top British and Swedish executives; in housing-shy Sweden, many an executive is lured by the offer of free housing. German executives have an endless range of fringe benefits, including nominal rent for their usually luxurious private residences. One top German executive receives part of his benefits in the form of two blank airline tickets that he and his wife can make out to wherever they want to go. This year, circling 'round the globe, they went to Communist China.
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