from nytimes.com: Mary T. Barra, chief executive of General Motors, will earn as much as $14.4 million in compensation during her first year on the job, the company said on Monday. The automaker made her compensation package public two months ahead of schedule in response to criticism from politicians and media commentators in recent weeks that Ms. Barra, the first female chief executive of any automaker, would be paid less than her predecessor, Daniel F. Akerson. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Obama made studies showing that women earn 77 percent of what men make a central issue in his State of the Union address.