CEO PAY WATCH HORMEL FOODS CORP.
Jeffrey Ettinger, P, CEO Total compensation: $5,386,991 for the year ended Oct. 31.
Salary: $912,075
Non-equity incentive pay: $3,526,180
Other compensation: $56,586
Exercised stock options: $892,150
New stock options: 300,000
Total return to shareholders: -20.9 percent
Note: Ettinger's total compensation was up 44 percent from last year. His base salary increased 11. 9 percent but his big gain was from the increase in non-equity incentive pay. Ettinger's incentive pay includes $2,182,500 from a long-term incentive plan and $1,343,680 from Hormel's "Operators Share Plan" - a short-term incentive plan based on earnings per share and economic value added that has been in place at Hormel since 1932.
The long-term incentive plan was for a three-year cycle from Oct. 31, 2005 to Oct. 26, 2008. Hormel's Total Shareholder Return was at the 48.5 percentile in relation to 32 peer companies. This resulted in a payout at 97 percent of the target award assigned to each participant in the plan.