The prices might be low at Target Corp., but the pay at the top is good.
Brian Cornell, chair and chief executive officer, saw his compensation rise 8.7 percent to $19.2 million, up from $17.7 million in 2022, according to the company’s proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In standard retail practice, most of that pay came in the form of stock awards, which are intended to tie the fortunes of top executives with those of shareholders. Cornell’s stock awards were valued at $14.7 million last year, but how much he actually sees out of that will depend on Target’s share price in the future.
The CEO also received a total of $2.6 million in incentive and bonus pay, a salary of $1.4 million and other compensation valued at $469,038.
That catchall category included $311,312 in “perquisites that serve a business purpose for Target or support his safety, health and well-being, namely: reimbursement of home security expenses, on-site parking, executive physical and personal use of company-owned aircraft — including to travel to outside board meetings — for security reasons.”
Cornell is among the highest-paid retail CEOs, but is not at the top of the list. While this year’s pay figures are still rolling in as companies prepare for their annual meetings with their proxy statements, Walmart Inc.’s CEO Doug McMillon saw his total compensation rise 6.6 percent to $27 million last year.
Target has seen dramatic growth under Cornell, who’s been CEO of the mass merchant for nearly a decade, but the company hit something of a rough patch recently, logging a 5.4 percent decline in comparable store sales in the fourth quarter.
But Cornell, who laid out his broader vision at a meeting with investors in March, has his eye on the long game.
“Over the next decade, we expect our total revenue will grow by an average rate of roughly 4 percent per year,” Cornell said at the meeting. “If we attain that goal, our business will add more than $50 billion of revenue on top of the $107 billion we delivered in 2023. That growth will enable our business to further benefit from scale efficiencies as we continue to extend our reach in the U.S. market.”
