Annual Meeting: May 15, 2020

Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy’s, had total reported compensation of $10,308,820 for 2019. This includes a salary that has increased each of the last three years. The company has announced that beginning April 1, all employees at the director-level and above who are not furloughed will have a pay reduction and Macy’s CEO and the Board of Directors will receive no cash compensation.

Shareholders voting at Macy’s annual meeting may want to look beyond the proxy to a recently signed advisory agreement. The agreement guarantees Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Paula A. Price, who is leaving her position on May 31, monthly payments of $85,000 “for up to eight hours per week” of advising the company. In other words, she will get this payment for 32 hours of work per month for the next six months.

The median pay of a Macy’s employee last year – prior to the recent furloughs – was $22,353.

The agreement stipulates that it, “shall not require you to report to work at the Company, nor to work any definite hours, and all scheduling shall take into account your personal and family plans so as not to interfere unreasonably with those plans.”

The agreement also stipulates that, “no portion of any relocation payments or benefits that the Company has provided to you will be repaid to the Company.” The relocation is so recent that the benefit was paid in 2019 and is included under the “All other compensation” for Price. In the footnotes to the table, the company notes that the $256,804 was paid directly for relocation and an additional $246,736 was paid to cover Price’s personal tax expenses related to the move. Shareholders have long opposed such payment of executive taxes.