C.H. Robinson's compensation philosophy focuses on profitability and bases its incentive compensation on pretax earnings. More than 65 percent of C.H. Robinson's employees have incentive compensation based on profits of the company or their branch. 6,377 of the company's 7,347 employees work in 235 branches worldwide.
Wiehoff's annual bonus has averaged $1.2 million over the past four years and was $1.3 million in 2009, up less than 1 percent from 2008. The growth in 2009 incentive compensation was from an approximately 2 percent increase in adjusted pretax income in 2009 compared with 2008.
Wiehoff's biggest gain last year was from the exercise of previously issued stock options and the value of vested stock awards that make up his long-term incentive compensation. In 2003, C.H. Robinson stopped awarding stock options, with the exception of reload options, and started awarding restricted stock awards. Vesting of restricted stock awards is based on achieving 15 percent annual growth for operating income and earnings per share.
Last year C.H. Robinson's consolidated total revenue fell 11.7 percent to $7.6 billion, mainly because of falling transportation rates, while income from operations increased 2.3 percent to $584.8 million and net income increased 0.5 percent to $360.8 million.
