Retiring Safeway CEO Steven Burd is not paid as well as his peers in the retail industry, even though he took home $11.4 million in 2012 and $11.5 million in 2011, according to the Pleasanton, Calif.-based company’s executive compensation committee.
The San Francisco Business Times reports that Safeway’s audit committee—the members of the board of directors who oversee executive pay—said that in 2011 Burd’s pay of $11.5 million “was at or near the bottom half of our compensation peer group in most categories.”
Though Burd’s salary was the same in 2012 as in 2011—$1.5 million—his total compensation for the year fell slightly to $11,343,479, according to the grocery company’s proxy card.
In 2011, Burd’s total compensation at Safeway was $11,498,595. He’s retiring from the company May 13.
Safeway paid Burd a bonus of $1,265,025 in 2012. That was 85 percent of the target bonus.
The pay conclusion came from comparing Burd’s 2011 pay to that of executives at similar companies like The Kroger Co., Home Depot Inc., Gap Inc., Target Corp., J.C. Penney Co., Walgreen Co. and McDonald’s Corp., among others.
In 2011, Kroger CEO David Dillon’s salary was $1,273,871, lower than Burd’s, but his total compensation for the year was $12,024,543, which was $525,948 more than Burd’s, the Times reports.
