WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s “pay czar’’ who cut pay for executives at seven major corporations doesn’t want broader powers over the rest of the financial sector.
“I am troubled at the notion that it could be expanded,’’ Kenneth Feinberg said yesterday of his role overseeing pay at the largest recipients of government bailouts. “That is a mistake.’’
But Feinberg told a congressional committee that the standards he used should guide the broader marketplace.
His testimony comes as Congress struggles with what role government should play in determining top executive pay at companies that are so large and intertwined that their failure can ripple throughout the economy.
Also yesterday, General Motors chief executive Fritz Henderson said government-imposed cuts to his own salary, and the pay of other executives at companies that received taxpayer money, were “fair’’ and ’’thoughtful.’’
Henderson’s base salary was cut 30 percent to about $1.3 million earlier this year when GM accepted government loans.
