Harley CEO gets pay raise

Wandell kept Harley’s head above water — and is being paid handsomely for it.

Harley-Davidson’s unionized plant workers may be making contract concessions to bring in lower-paid labour, but CEO Keith E. Wandell still did well for himself last year.

 The Associated Press reports that Wandell saw a one per cent raise in his pay in 2010.  

That may not sound like much to you, but for Wandell, that’s a jump of $52,918. Wandell’s 2010 compensation works out to about $6.4 million when you include bonuses and stock options, according to the report.



That’s a lot of dough for Wandell, who came to Harley-Davidson in 2009 after working as chief operating officer of Johnson Controls Inc.

But, in a year where the company’s sales dropped 8.5 per cent worldwide, Harley-Davidson still posted a profit and saw stock prices rise to $34.67 a share from $25.20 at the end of 2009. Union workers may not like his pay scale, but he seems to be keeping the company afloat.



The Associated Press puts Wandell’s base salary at $975,037, up from $650,025 in 2009; his stock and option awards were worth about $3.02 million, down from $4.91 million in 2009, and he received $2.3 million in performance-based cash (he didn’t receive any in 2009). He received $83,490 in other perks in 2010, up from around $20,000 in 2009.