The gap in the U.S. workplace between the highest and lowest
paid has been growing for years. Far less noticed has been the growing gulf in
retirement pay. While the very top often continue to receive executive pensions
as well as other benefits, most workers are left only with their 401(k)
plans.
CEO compensation at large U.S. companies was 204 times
higher than the pay of workers on average in 2013, up 20 percent since 2009,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And the retirement benefits
divide perpetuates income inequality into old age. Some industries illustrate
this trend more starkly than others. Big retailing chains, with their armies of
lower-paid floor workers and their elite executive ranks, can be especially
emblematic of the retirement gap.
Gregg Steinhafel, who stepped down as chief executive
officer of Target Corp. in May following a massive credit-card data
breach, received retirement plans worth more than $47 million. When he joined
Target in 1979, the Minneapolis-based company offered generous retirement
programs -- so generous for executives that it included a deferred compensation
plan that paid a guaranteed 12 percent interest.
That’s quite a contrast with the average Target employees’
retirement plans. Steinhafel’s total package is 1,044 times the average balance
of $45,000 that workers have saved in the company’s 401(k) plan.
Steinhafel’s Package
Steinhafel’s package included $27.7 million from a combined
pension plan for top executives and a deferred compensation plan, according to
proxy filings. He was also paid $9.8 million from an earlier deferred
compensation plan, as well as an additional $9.9 million in interest payments
on that sum. Target said its directors have changed executive
compensation programs to better reflect the retailer’s commitment to pay for
performance and that Steinhafel was the last top executive eligible for the
deferred compensation plan that paid 12 percent interest.
Compensation
Ballooned
For decades executive retirement savings plans were designed
to replace CEO incomes, which were more modest than today. Many who save in a
401(k), by contrast, don’t have enough for a secure retirement. At Target,
those who work less than 1,000 hours aren’t eligible to save in the plan at
all.
‘Take the Cake’
The retailer’s 31,000 retirees received an average annual
pension benefit of about $4,000 in 2013, according to company filings. For
current employees, Target has “below average” participation in its 401(k),
according to BrightScope Inc., a San Diego firm that rates 401(k)s.
Decline of Pensions
Target store workers, like those at other retailing
companies, earn at the lower end of the pay scale -- store clerks typically
make about $10 an hour. Such companies not only have low 401(k) participation
rates, many also tend not to automatically enroll their workers.
Among the challenges for those earning hourly wages has been
the almost universal decline of traditional pensions. The number of
pension plans dropped by more than 70 percent to about 42,300 between 1984 and
2012, while 401(k) plans multiplied to more than 500,000 from 17,000 in that
period. Employee funded 401(k)s haven’t effectively replaced those pensions.
The median combined 401(k) and individual retirement account balance for
households headed by people between 55 and 64 was $111,000 in 2013. Those
savings will provide a little more than $4,000 a year, assuming the recommended
4 percent withdrawal rate. It’s a different reality for CEOs and their top lieutenants,
especially those with so-called executive pensions.
Deferred Compensation
Plans
Sometimes called supplemental executive retirement plans, or
SERPs, they’re usually calculated by multiplying years of service and the
average pay earned over the executives’ last three to five years of
service, when earnings are at their peak. Unlike pensions, SERPs are generally
unfunded liabilities on companies’ balance sheets. They’re paid in cash when
executives retire or leave.
More common than SERPs are deferred compensation plans,
which more than three-quarters of Fortune 1000 companies offer, according to
The Newport Group. They allow executives to set aside salary and
bonus income on a pretax basis and circumvent caps lower-paid
employees face on contributions to 401(k) accounts. About half of these
companies contributed to their executives’ balances and three-quarters of the
plans had different options, usually more robust than those offered to 401(k)
participants.
McKesson CEO
T CEO of McKesson Corp., has been awarded a varied mix
of retirement benefits. Hammergren’s deferred compensation was valued at $30
million in 2013, according to proxy filings. Additionally, his executive
pension was valued at $159 million, making it the most lucrative for a CEO at a
company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, according to compensation
consultants. The 55-year-old CEO of the San Francisco-based medical-products
company agreed last year to reduce his pension by $45 million and cap its value
at $114 million, following complaints from activist investors. The company has
had a 401(k) plan since 1983.
Sweeteners
The dwindling universe of companies that still offer
traditional pensions to employees often give sweeteners to top executives. Exxon
Mobil Corp. CEO Rex W. Tillerson’s pension was valued at $2.1 million
in 2013. About 1,000 U.S. executives at Exxon are on track to receive that sort
of additional payout, based on the average of the three highest bonuses
received in the last five years prior to retirement, according to proxy filings.
That’s good for the coveted top tier. For everyone else, workers must save
whatever they can and make it last as long as possible.
Click
here to access the full article on Bloomberg.