- Costco CEO Craig Jelinek earned total compensation of more than $16.8 million in 2023, per SEC filings.
- The median employee earned $50,202 in annual pay and benefits, up from $45,450 in 2022.
For Craig Jelinek's final year as Costco CEO, the 71-year-old is going out with a financial bang.
Jelinek's base salary for 2023 was $1.1 million, add to that stock awards of nearly $15 million and other compensation, for a total package worth a very respectable $16.8 million, per Costco's most recent proxy filings.
By comparison, his total compensation for the prior two years was $9.9 million in 2022 and $8.8 million in 2021.
Meanwhile, among 289,000 of the company's workers, the median compensation was $50,202 in wages and benefits. That works out to a CEO pay ratio of 336 times median employee pay.
The median worker also saw a substantial raise over the prior year's $45,450 compensation.
Jelinek's compensation is below that of Walmart's Doug McMillon and Target's Brian Cornell, who made $25.3 million and $17.6 million, respectively.
The median Costco employee fared better than those at Walmart, who earned $27,136, and Target, who earned $25,993 last year. Their respective CEO pay ratios were 933 and 680.
SEC rules require all public companies to calculate full-year earnings of part-time workers in identifying their median employee, but companies that rely on large numbers of part-time workers, such as retailers, argue that this distorts their compensation picture.
In response, Costco voluntarily reports a supplemental calculation that only includes full-time employees, who represent roughly 60% of its workforce. The median compensation among full-timers was $66,783.
Jelinek is just the second person to serve as CEO in Costco's 40-year history, having taken over from cofounder Jim Sinegal.
When he retires on January 1, Jelinek will hand over the top job to Ron Vachris, who started with the company as a forklift driver over 40 years ago and now serves as its president. As CEO, Vachris will earn a total compensation package worth $11.5 million.
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