Obama’s recent appointment of an executive compensation czar to oversee pay at companies that have received federal assistance could result in the government’s eventually dictating executive compensation practices for all companies, reports the Dallas Morning News.
“This is the type of thing that could be a nice great experiment, and they may decide that if the rest of America can’t get its act together, there may be something similar coming through,” said Bruce Ellig, author of The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation. “This could be a broad-gauge extension across industries.”
Kenneth Feinberg is the new czar who will set the pay for 175 top executives at seven companies that received federal assistance.
While Feinberg may not be concerned with the 100 largest companies in Dallas-Fort Worth, Congress might directly influence executive pay.
The top paid Dallas-Fort Worth executive was Keith Hutton, CEO of XTO Energy, a Forth Worth-based natural gas company. Hutton was paid a total of $29.7 million, which includes his base salary, cash incentives, long-term stock or option awards, change in pension value, nonqualified deferred compensation and any other compensation.
Feinberg’s recent appointment may be the first step in which the government has more oversight over executive compensation.