Why GM’s “pay gap” for its first female CEO isn’t what it seems

No executive drew more of a crowd during the press days of the Detroit auto show last month than Mary Barra, General Motors' new chief executive and the first woman to head a global automaker. While she's shied away from making much news in her first days, the details of her salary released days ago suggested GM had chiseled her out of the same paycheck it gave former chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson, despite Barra having more than three decades of experience at the company. It's the kind of story that can make one enraged — and that, upon close inspection, doesn't hold true.

At first blush, the numbers look like the worst kind of chauvinism. Akerson was paid $9 million in salary, bonuses and stock for 2013; Barra's pay package that GM announced last month totals just $4.4 million, with $1.6 million in base salary and $2.8 million in short-term incentives. That's not only less than half of Akerson's pay while he was CEO, it's less than the $4.6 million contract GM gave him on his way out the door to serve as a consultant.

Those totals set off outrage from opposing corners about how Barra's pay exemplifies the statistic that women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn while doing the same work, and that the first female CEO of a major automaker shouldn't suffer such an injustice.

But that's not the whole story.