Executive Compensation

Ex Wal-Mart CEO's deferred pay: $140 million

Gary Strauss
WATCH LIVE

Departed Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke's deferred pay should provide enough money to shop beyond discount retailers for many years.

Duke, who retired Jan. 31, had $140.1 million in deferred compensation at year's end, Wal-Mart said Wednesday in its annual proxy filing. That's more than $27 million over what Duke had accumulated in retirement accounts in 2013, when governance experts noted that was more than 6,000 times greater than what the average Wal-Mart employee had stashed in 401K retirement accounts.

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Duke's fiscal 2014 compensation dropped more than 70% to $5.6 million from $20.7 million in the prior fiscal year, mostly due to the absence of a stock award.

Paulo Fridman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Duke gained another $17 million from vested shares and nearly $2.9 million exercising previously awarded stock options.

Duke, 64, had been CEO since February 2009 and previously oversaw Wal-Mart International and Wal-Mart U.S. Before joining the company, Duke was with the Federated and May department store chains.

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Wal-Mart has noted that Duke had been with the company since 1995 and that his deferred pay and compensation was tied both to a competitive marketplace and his length of service.

Duke's successor, C. Douglas McMillon, saw his compensation soar to $25.6 million from $9.5 million. The bulk of McMillon's gain came from a $23 million stock grant. Wal-Mart said the grant is tied to McMillon's promotion and payouts tied to three years of corporate performance metrics.

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Wal-Mart shares gained about 7% during the last fiscal year, lagging the Standard & Poors 500 Index, which gained 32%. Under Duke's five-year watch, shares rose nearly 60%.

By Gary Strauss of USA Today. Follow Strauss @gbstrauss.