On first blush, Target's 16-week severance package to its 17,600 Canadian workers sounds fairly generous. That is, until you compare it to what former CEO Gregg Steinhafel got last May.
The Minneapolis retailer fired Steinhafel last May, six months after a data breach affecting up to 110 million customers occurred under his watch. Though investor activists succeeded in cutting Steinhafel's "golden handshake," Fortune reported that the ex-CEO's total payout was $61 million.
Flash forward to Jan. 15. As Target announced it was pulling out of Canada, the company noted that its "employee trust" package for its Canadian workers is $59 million -- $2 million less than the amount Steinhafel got.
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Critics on social media pounced on the disparity in payout schemes:
1 CEO is worth 17,600 employees says @TargetCanada—so audaciously offensive I first thought it was a joke #inequality http://t.co/NW2vhsRwPq— Glenn Ewald (@glennewald) January 22, 2015
As #TargetCanada closes; CEO Steinhafel gets to take home $61 million http://t.co/qEPwgKBbmZ via @FortuneMagazine pic.twitter.com/JmDk3bR6Ec— Christellar (@christellar) January 21, 2015
The severance issue also prompted discussion on Reddit. One Redditor with the usernamedarkest4 opined:
"I'm amazed people can think that one human being can ever be worth hundreds or thousands of other human beings. Yes, there should be some incentive for higher positions, but the magnitude of pay (including bonuses, stock incentives etc) difference should be in the 10s of times at most... not hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of times more pay than people who are probably working just as hard (or harder, as some CEOs are glorified signature signers or spend half their time on the golf course) and as many hours as these corporate hot shots, just with different skillsets.