TVA’s Bill JohnsonNASHVILLE – TVA directors today voted to boost the pay of CEO Bill Johnson, already the highest paid federal employee in America, up by $1 million in salary and performance payments.
TVA Chairman Joe Ritch said Bill Johnson, who was paid a total compensation package in fiscal 2013 valued at $5.9 million in cash and retirement benefits, is still underpaid for his performance.
RItch said Johnson, a former Progress Energy CEO recruited to TVA two years ago, was paid in the bottom quartile of top utility CEOs and TVA needs to pay a competitive salary to keep top talent.
The TVA board decided today that Johnson met all of his performance targets in the past year and agreed to boost his salary by 4.7 percent in fiscal 2015 and allow Johnson to make nearly $1 million more in performance incentive payments if he meets all of his goals.
“We could have hired someone for less, but I don’t think we’d be getting the results that we are at TVA if we had,” Ritch said.