Top shipyard execs get raises, pension hikes in 2012 [Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)]

March 16--The five top-paid executives at Newport News Shipbuilding's parent company got raises ranging between 5 percent and 39 percent in 2012 and their pensions ballooned, according to a federal form filed Friday.

Huntington Ingalls Industries CEO and president Mike Petters, total compensation dipped slightly to $12,87 million from $12.9 million in 2011. That's about 14 times his salary of $900,000 salary, which increased 5 percent.

Meanwhile Petters' take-home pay -- which includes his salary; perks like personal liability insurance; as well as the incentive and stock payments he realized in 2012 -- dropped to $5.2 million from $6.6 million in 2011. And his pension's estimated value grew by $5.4 million, or more than double the increase from a year earlier.

For three of the other four highest paid executives at the company, including shipyard president Matt Mulherin, overall pay, take-home pay, salary and pensions increased.

For example, Mulherin's overall compensation rose to $4.2 million from $4 million a year earlier. His salary rose to $500,000, a 7.8 percent increase, while his pension's estimated value grew by $2.1 million more than double the change in value in 2011.

His take-home pay, which includes salary and incentive payments rose to $2.7 million from $2.5 million.

The latest compensation information was filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of Huntington Ingalls' proxy statement in advance of its annual shareholders meeting.

It also comes a day after the shipyard's largest union, United Steelworkers Local 8888 overwhelmingly ratified a long-term contract that gave hourly workers an immediate 3.5 percent wage increase, followed by three raises of either 3 percent or 3.5 percent every 13 months.

A critic of the contract said that had workers seen what top Huntington Ingalls executives were getting paid in 2012 they might have voted differently.

"If they had known top execs were padding their pockets, workers might have said 'maybe we should hold off and vote 'no,"" said Claude "Wayne" De Berry, a union pipefitter.

"We got a bone with no meat on it for keeping the company out of the red and keeping them profitable quarter after quarter," he added.

Other top executives' pay

Total compensation for Irwin Edenzon, president of Pascagoula, Miss.,-based Ingalls Shipbuilding, rose to $3.578 million from $3.576 million in 2011.

Edenzon's salary rose 7.8 percent to $500,000, and his pension's value rose by $1.4 million after growing by $600,000 a year earlier.

Total compensation for Barbara Niland, the company's chief financial officer, was $6.5 million up from $5.2 million in 2011.

Her salary grew by 12 percent to $550,000 while her pension increased by $4 million after jumping by $1.7 million the prior year.

Total pay for Bruce Hawthorne, the company's general counsel, dropped to $2.15 million from $3.1 million because of about $1 million less in stock awards. Hawthorne's salary grew by 39 percent to $500,000. Of the five executives, the company did not list any pension increases for Hawthorne for either 2011 or 2012.

In the proxy statement, the company discusses why the pension increases were as large as they were. The changes, it says, "are primarily the result of increased salaries and bonuses associated with new roles for all of our (named executive officers), other than Mr. Hawthorne, following our spin-off from Northrop Grumman on March 31, 2011."

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