Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Alan Mulally's total compensation rose 48 percent to $26.5 million in 2010 when the automaker reported its best net profit in a decade.

Mulally is credited with turning Ford around from the time he became CEO in October 2006, including steering it through the U.S. economic recessions without taking a U.S. government bailout as did the other two major U.S. automakers, General Motors Co and Chrysler, now managed by Italy's Fiat SpA.

Compensation for Ford's top executives and directors was included in the company's 2010 proxy statement with U.S. regulators that also announced the company's annual meeting on May 12.

Mulally's compensation is expected to be an issue in the upcoming labor contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers union. The current contract expires in September.

UAW President Bob King said last week that Mulally's pay, including stock options not available to most union workers, was outrageous and morally wrong at a time when some workers who make Ford vehicles earn $15 per hour.

Company executive chairman Bill Ford's 2010 compensation rose 57 percent to $26.4 million, including a salary of $4.8 million, some of which was deferred from 2008 and 2009 when the Ford scion said he would take no compensation until the company was profitable again.

Ford's net income of $6.6 billion in 2010 was its highest profit since 1999. That is up from 2009 net profit of $2.7 billion, which snapped a three-year streak of losses that totaled $30 billion from 2006 through 2008.

In 2010, Ford's U.S. sales rose 19.5 percent and it overtook Toyota to become No. 2 in sales in the United States. On Friday, industry figures showed that Ford sold more cars in the United States in March than main rival GM for only the second time since 1998.

Mulally has pushed the company's One Ford plan, which has streamlined manufacturing, marketing and other aspects of the automaker's business and increased product quality as determined by independent analysts, including Consumer Reports.

The 2010 compensation for Ford's top two executives does not include stock awards granted to them last month, which at the current share price are worth about $58 million for the 65-year-old Mulally and $43.8 million for Ford, 53, on a pre-tax basis.

Mulally and Ford each had a base salary of $1.4 million in 2010 and that will increase to $2 million in 2010.

Mark Fields, Ford's president for North America and South America, earned $8.8 million including bonuses and stock awards, up from $3.9 million in 2009.

For Lewis Booth, Ford's chief financial officer, compensation was $8.2 billion last year, up from $3.8 million in 2009.

John Fleming, Ford's head of manufacturing and labor affairs, had total compensation of $5.9 million, up from $3.8 million the previous year.

Ford's shares were just above $1 in late 2008 and soared to nearly $19 in January. On Friday, Ford shares gained 1.7 percent to close at $15.16, up 20 percent from a year ago.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; editing by Matthew Lewis)