I realize you’re all going to get on my case again for saying something nice about a home builder, but here’s the thing: After reporting the obscene amount of money a certain CEO of a certain mega-mortgage company raked in last year (Mozilo of Countrywide), I simply have to give a shout-out to Lennar for their no-performance, no-pay policy.
The AP is reporting that Lennar’s CEO, Stuart Miller, could have earned more than 11 million dollars in pay last year, but the company withheld nearly 10 million of it because Lennar didn’t meet its financial goals.
The AP got that from an analysis of company filings. Instead, he received a little over one million dollars. He also received no bonus. Lennar reported a nearly 2 billion-dollar loss for all of 2007.
Lennar has a pay-for-performance compensation and bonus program. I called Mr. Miller’s office, and his rep said quite simply, “Performance wasn’t achieved.”
Granted he still got a million bucks as the housing market bled cash all around him, and he certainly raked in plenty during the housing boom. I’m not crying for Mr. Miller, but I’m heartened that at least one company out there seems at least semi-reasonable about CEO pay.
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