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C.H. Robinson slices pay to execs for three months

C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) has joined the trend of companies reducing compensation in the C-suite to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by cutting the salary of its CEO in half.

In an 8-K document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, April 17, the leading third-party logistics provider (3PL) said the Compensation Committee of the company had approved that and other reductions for a three-month period, from May 1 through July 31. 

The cut of 50% would apply to president and CEO Robert Biesterfeld Jr. In the company’s 2020 proxy statement, Biesterfeld’s salary for this year was listed at $975,000, up from $700,000 in 2019. A 50% cut would take that down to a prorated annual number of $487,500.

The company said it was also cutting salaries by 20% for “other executive officers.” Among the other officers listed in the proxy, CFO Michael Zechmeister was slated to receive $700,000 this year while Chief Commercial Officer Christopher O’Brien’s salary was $500,000. Other officers listed in the proxy are Mac Pinkerton, president of NAST, with a salary of $475,000, and Michael Short, President of Global Forwarding Freight, at $525,000.


Base cash retainer payments for members of the board also will be reduced 50%. According to the proxy, independent directors of the company in 2019 were paid an annual retainer of $90,000.

The C.H. Robinson 8-K indicated no change in compensation in the form of stock options or grants. Most companies that have been reducing executive pay have not adjusted compensation in the form of options or grants because such a move does nothing in the short run to save the company cash.

With various incentives and equity, Biesterfeld’s “total realized compensation” in 2019 was $2,127,586, according to the proxy.

C.H. Robinson’s stock closed at $75.76 on April 17. In the last month, it’s up 14.91% but down 8.06% in the last three months, according to data from Barchart. For the 12-month period, it is down 17.03%. 


9 Comments

  1. Nick B

    $975,000 income!!?? Really?? Hey i got an idea and instead of paying your greedy self that much why not take little less of the pay and pay the truck/driver a little more each load.!!! Ill tell ya i think it is true that the only way to get rich is to screw people over!!

  2. Edward

    Brockers are freeloaders draining the economy. Cutting their pay is a joke. They should be eliminated completely. Whatever it takes.

  3. Stefan Riffle

    Yea they make more that owner operators even before we pay fuel and insurance and maintenance so they could definitely pay more for these loads and they could still pay there employees more and still make more than everyone but that type of greed from those people that do nothing will never change

  4. C Blossum

    Now I see why the company is extremely stingy on pay raises and not giving overtime like they used to. That definitely pay it definitely isn’t painful compared to those making kibbles and bits, pay check to pay check

  5. Noble1

    Suggestion :

    Take those executive pay cuts and distribute a portion of it proportionally among your workers on the frontline as a bonus for accepting to put themselves at risk during this pandemic .

    Not only would this show your recognition for their efforts to keep you in business , but it would make you look good in the process .

    In my humble opinion ………….

    1. Angela

      Ditto as the company is getting ready to
      Furlough about 7% of its peon staff – pay crap to boot!
      Hopefully they’ll start in Voorhees

Comments are closed.

John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.