It was a tough road Wagoner faced ahead. GM was on the brink of failure, in massive debt, all under his watch. Retirement packages weighed heavily on the company and layoffs were happening with more on the horizon. The much-profitable SUV segment was dying, and compact and mid-sized cars were not profitable. Nevertheless, Rick had vowed to stick it out and see the company through to recovery.

And then the Obama administration asked him to leave. While Wagoner had been at GM for 31 years, and spent eight at the top, it must have been hard for him to say goodbye. Even though this goodbye was worth $23 million: An accumulated pension of $21.1 million, stock awards of $367,000 (that's a lot of stock considering GM's share price of $1.94), deferred compensation of $535,000, and stock options worth $3 million.

The president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Ken Lewenza commented, "It's unconscionable. During these times, it is morally and ethically wrong to hand out this kind of package. It should be tied to the performance of the company.''

But in order to attract CEOs firms as big as GM have gotten used to contractual agreements of such magnitude. In other words, these payments are part of his his existing package.

Furthermore, he did not receive any severance pay, and the value of the shares will likely drop or even become worthless, rendering his stock worthless.

Moreover, his options allow him to buy shares at values between approximately $20 to $76. But that means nothing now that the share price of GM is less than $2.