Steel Mills

Industry Struggles Result in CEO Paycuts

Written by Sandy Williams


US Steel CEO Mario Longhi took a 35 percent pay cut last year after the company failed to meet financial targets.

Longhi’s pay cut was due mostly to the elimination of a cash incentive award that in 2014 totaled $4 million dollars. A recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows the CEO’s compensation at $8.6 million, down from 13.2 million the previous year.

No cash incentive payments were awarded to any of US Steel’s top executives in 2015 after the company posted a $1.5 billion loss.

A 2011 revision to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) gave shareholders a vote on executive pay at least every three years. A review of executive compensation by shareholders is coming up for US Steel at the company’s annual meeting on April 26.

A TribLive article recently noted that the trend to reduce or eliminate CEO incentive pay has taken hold across companies in struggling U.S. industries.

“It’s very early days in proxy season this year,” said John Roe, a managing director at ISS Corporate Solutions Roe, in the TribLive article. “But what we’re hearing is a lot of companies this year are resorting to discretionary pay reductions.”

Other companies cited for reducing executive pay included Allegheny Technologies, Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., and oilfield service company Schlumberger.

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