James Snee

Hormel Foods Corp.

Chairman, president, CEO

  • Total compensation: $7,666,578
  • Salary: $1,010,577
  • Non-equity incentive pay: $4,792,700
  • Other compensation: $248,311
  • Exercised stock options: $1,614,990
  • New stock options: 222,700
  • Median employee pay: $49,760
  • CEO pay ratio: 200 to 1
  • Total fiscal 2021 shareholder return: -12.8

Note: Snee realized $7.7 million in total compensation for Hormel's fiscal year-ended Oct. 29. That was 42% less than he did the previous year when he exercised more options. In the prior year his total compensation was $13.3 million.

For the most recent fiscal year, Snee and other executives earned smaller annual incentive pay than the prior year after the company achieved approximately 79% of its annual incentive targets for the year that included revenue, earnings and asset metrics.

Snee had earned annual incentive pay of $4.8 million, down from the $5.4 million earned the prior year. The biggest change was the amount of previously issued stock options that Snee exercised: $1.6 million in the most recent year compared to $6.7 million in stock option gains the prior year.

In the prior fiscal year, the board of directors added some environmental, social and governance (ES&G) goals to its annual incentive plan. The ES&G goals included targets for more women and underrepresented minorities in salaried positions. According to the proxy, Hormel was over the goal in some cases and below goals in others and resulted in a payout that was 69% of the target.

During the year, Hormel closed on its largest acquisition ever, a $3.3 billion deal for the Planters snack portfolio from Kraft Heinz Co. Financial incentive targets were adjusted to account for the acquisition.

On the day before Thanksgiving, Hormel announced the company's annual employee profit-sharing, The company did not disclose the actual number it shared with employees this year other than to say it has ranged between $14 million and $17 million over the last 10 years. Hormel has been sharing profits with its employees for the last 83 years.