Pay for salaried GM staff still frozen

Speaking at the Economic Club before a meeting with the Treasury Department's top corporate pay official Kenneth Feinberg, Akerson said GM would "lead by example," The Detroit News reported.

He also called for "greater flexibility" in pay issues and said GM had lost some executive staff due to pay restrictions imposed by the government, which loaned GM $49.5 billion in emergency aid last year.

The federal government still owns about a third of the company, although its share was diminished with GM's $23.1 billion initial public offering in November. The Treasury Department sold some of its holdings during the IPO, recouping $13.5 billion from GM, the newspaper said.

"Three weeks ago, people by the hundreds of thousands … saw a new company positioned to break even in the United States near the bottom of the cycle, not the middle," Akerson said, referring to GM's new shareholders.

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