Ford Motor Co., in another sign of its financial comeback, is writing Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. a big paycheck to make up for some of the five years he declined to take a salary, The Detroit News reported.

The automaker announced Friday that Bill Ford will get $4.2 million in salary and stock options of about $11.6 million. That's what he would have gotten, had he been paid from 2008 until now -- minus a 30 percent pay cut that the company's top executives agreed to swallow for 2009 and 2010.

"Executives are there to contribute and be rewarded in an appropriate manner," said auto industry researcher Rebecca Lindland of IHS Automotive in Lexington, Mass. "This shows Ford is back on track and being run the way a company should be in a capital market.

"It's a return to normalcy."

Despite the big payday for Bill Ford, it could still be some time before the automaker is convinced its financial footing is firm enough to resume paying dividends to its stockholders. Dividends were canceled in 2006.

Bill Ford sold $28 million of his shares Friday; some will go toward repaying loans he took out in the dark days of 2004 and 2005 to buy $14 million in Ford stock, as a show of faith in the company.

Since then, crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler declared bankruptcy, received government bailouts, shed debt and regrouped as new companies.

Ford, however, won public favor for declining government assistance. Buyers have embraced its vehicles, which continue to improve in quality.

"Even during the difficult times for our company and the industry, I never doubted that our efforts at Ford would be successful," Bill Ford said in a note to employees obtained by The Detroit News.

"I continued to invest in our company's future by purchasing Ford stock, at times, taking out personal loans to do so."

Ford's success, he said, "is my life's work, and I am fully confident we are on track for sustained profitable growth through our commitment to building great products, a strong business and a better world."

In his note, Bill Ford announced he is donating $1 million to a college scholarship fund for employees' children.

The great-grandson of founder Henry Ford announced in May 2005 that he would forgo compensation until the company showed sustained profits. The automaker was restructuring, and jobs and costs were being cut at all levels.

At that time, Bill Ford held the top three positions: chairman, president and chief executive officer. He felt an obligation to participate in the companywide sacrifices.

"It was a more prolonged downturn than anyone thought it would be when Bill made the pledge," Ford spokesman Mark Truby said Friday.

The company's compensation committee decided in 2008 that when the company met certain profitability conditions, Bill Ford's compensation would be paid retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008. He will not recoup the millions he could have earned from 2005 to 2008.

When the four-member compensation committee met this week, it decided that after four profitable quarters, it was time for Bill Ford to get some back pay, Truby said.

The details were released in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

"The company is clearly performing well enough that the board felt comfortable doing this," said analyst Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting Inc. in Short Hills, N.J.

Bill Ford and CEO Alan Mulally, who made $14 million in salary and $17.9 million total, could have their 30 percent pay cut restored when the committee meets at the end of this year to determine 2011 salaries.

Ford made $2.7 billion in 2009, its first annual profit in four years. It earned $2.6 billion in the second quarter of this year.

But the automaker has said it won't resume stock dividends until its credit rating climbs back to investment grade -- which will reduce its borrowing costs.

It's moving in the right direction: Fitch Ratings on Friday upgraded Ford and Ford Motor Credit Co. LLC to BB- from B.

But that's still three notches below investment grade, said Stephen Brown, Fitch's senior director of corporate finance in Chicago.

On Monday Standard & Poor's raised Ford's credit rating by two notches, to B-plus, the fourth-highest junk rating, and said the company could be upgraded again over the next year. Ford's S&P credit rating is at nearly a four-year high.

"It will take time to get up three more notches," said Brown.

Progress will come faster, he said, if the auto industry as a whole continues to improve, and Ford keeps prices up and costs down, enabling it to break even with lower sales.

Ratings agencies want to see Ford pay down more of its $27 billion in debt. At the company's annual meeting in May, Bill Ford confirmed the focus was on paring debt. The automaker repaid $7 billion in the second quarter.