President Donald Trump is pressuring the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board to implement a $500,000 compensation ceiling for all employees, a move intended to align executive pay with public sector standards and drastically cut the multimillion-dollar salary of CEO Don Moul.
The Thursday memo gives discretion to the TVA board — recently stacked with a majority of Trump’s appointees — on whether or how to implement such a cap but requests action within 90 days. Other high-level TVA staff would also see pay cuts if the plan were adopted.
TVA’s CEO is often the single highest paid federal employee, but executives at other investor-owned utilities often receive even higher salaries.
In his first term, Trump criticized the over $8 million compensation of then-CEO Jeff Lyash. Moul’s base salary is $1.2 million, but he earned an additional $4.5 million last year in performance-based incentives. Trump’s proposed $500,000 cap would include bonuses and incentives.
