Boeing CEO salary: Dennis Muilenburg can't be forced to give back last year's $23 million payout

On Wednesday, in front of a Congressional committee investigating the 737 Max crashes, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg was hit with a question he said he couldn't answer."Are you giving up any money?" asked Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee. Muilenburg made $23 million in 2018, according to Boeing's proxy statement — the year the first 737 Max jetliner crashed — on top of the $49 million he earned during the previous two years. Boeing's executive compensation policies limit how much pay it can recover later if, as Muilenburg stated in his testimony, "We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong." The same is true for Kevin McAllister, the recently departed head of Boeing's commercial division that produced the troubled jet. Boeing's pay policies don't permit it.Boeing declined to answer questions about its pay practices or about Muilenburg's or McAllister's compensation packages. Shortly after reporting its earnings last week, Boeing told employees in an internal message that the company would not pay any bonuses for 2019.The longer term issue is called a clawback policy, which can allow a company to recover cash, as well as stock compensation, from employees who it later turns out did not deserve what they were paid. Boeing's policy says the company will claw back "incentive pay" when the company has to restate financial results that were used to evaluate executive pay, when an executive leaves for a competitor, or when an executive has committed fraud. Safety lapses aren't part of the policy.Boeing's board conducted a five-month review of the company's safety policies following the second 737 Max crash in March, and made suggestions for how Boeing could improve its safety efforts. Executive pay policies, a Boeing spokesman told CBS MoneyWatch, weren't part of the safety review. Wells Fargo's clawback provision allowed the company to recoup pay from an executive whose conduct resulted in reputational damage to the bank, something that Boeing's does not do. Equifax, for instance, amended its clawback last year, following its massive consumer data hack, to include "misconduct or failure of oversight that results in significant financial or reputational harm" to the company, according to its most recent proxy statement.Corporate governance expert Nell Minow told CBS MoneyWatch it would be a good move both for Boeing's stock price and its tarnished reputation with airline customers and their passengers if Boeing were to update its clawback policy to include safety issues. Boeing draws its clawback policy "as narrowly as possible, given the legal requirements, which don't mention safety," Minow said.