What the Big-Box CEOs Earned in 2016

Financial reports from big-box retailers provide insight into what the world’s top retail executives are worth in dollars.

For example, Walmart’s sales outpace Home Depot’s and Lowe’s sales by hundreds of billions of dollars, but CEO Doug McMillon’s base salary matches what the home improvement retailers’ CEOs take home.

The three CEOs each earn base salaries of about $1.3 million, but the value of what their companies actually paid them in the year 2016 varied based on bonuses and stocks, according to public documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

And Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, despite the continued rapid growth of the e-commerce giant, draws a base salary of $81,840, which is less than the company’s other top executives earn. However, his 16.9 percent ownership stake in the company makes his salary look a little less modest.

And Sears CEO Edward Lampert’s base salary of $1—pay that’s less than an hour of minimum wage—may reflect his deep pockets from his other income sources, or serve as metaphor for his struggle to keep the beleaguered company operational.

Below are the base salaries for CEOs from your big-box competitors, organized in alphabetical order by company name.

• Amazon
  Jeff Bezos, president, CEO and chairman of the board
  $81,840
• Home Depot
  Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president
  $1.3 million
• Lowe’s
  Robert Niblock, CEO, president and chairman of the board
  $1.3 million
• Sears Holdings Corp.
  Edward Lampert, chairman and CEO
  $1
• Tractor Supply
  Greg Sandfort, CEO and director
  $1.04 million
• Walmart
  Doug McMillon, president and CEO
  $1.3 million

Sources: The companies’ public financial documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.