The U.S. pay czar on Friday issued his latest crackdown on bailout recipients, ruling that cash salaries will be mostly limited to $500,000 for the next tier of top earners.

Those determinations from the Treasury Department's Kenneth Feinberg come amid outcries from some companies on a taxpayer lifeline that they cannot retain or attract key employees, threatening their ability to recover to the point that they can repay bailout funds.

The rulings set the compensation structures from the 26th through 100th highest-paid employees at four firms: Citigroup Inc, American International Group, General Motors Co, and GMAC.

Chrysler and Chrysler Financial were exempted during this round of rulings because total pay for their second-tier executives already does not exceed $500,000, Treasury said.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and David Lawder)

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