Target’s former CEO took a steep pay cut in his final year — but he’s not going to starve.
Still smarting from its embarrassing holiday credit-card data breach, Target said Monday it slashed Gregg Steinhafel’s 2013 compensation by 37 percent and trimmed $5.4 million from his retirement benefits.
That left Steinhafel with just under $13 million in total compensation last year, down from $20.6 million a year earlier, the company disclosed in its annual proxy.
Nevertheless, the ex-CEO will still receive a severance package valued at $15.9 million under provisions governing his “involuntary termination for reasons other than for cause,” according to the filing.
And while he’s losing $1.5 million in pension benefits from last year, Steinhafel has still accrued a total of $33 million under his pension plan, filings show.
Target said Steinhafel will continue to earn his full salary and benefits as adviser to the company until Aug. 23 following his surprise ouster on May 5. He is also eligible for a bonus later this year.
The “cheap-chic” discounter said it cut Steinhafel’s 2013 pay package in response to shareholder gripes that his pay was too damn high “given Target’s performance relative to peers.”
Target didn’t say which disgruntled investors it met with, but it said they represented 40 percent of the company’s shares.
In addition to a data breach that affected as many as 70 million customers, Steinhafel took barbs for last year’s botched rollout of 124 stores in Canada, as well as years of lackluster sales and earnings in the US.