Jeff Gennette, chairman and chief governmental officer of Macy’s Inc.
Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Macy’s doled out $9 million in equity awards to six top foremen days after it laid off roughly a quarter of its corporate workforce.
The ailing department store chain’s CEO, Jeff Gennette, pull down restricted stock worth $3.7 million on July 9, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The five other execs, classifying legal chief Elisa Garcia and human resources chief Danielle Kirgan, received awards ranging from $350,000 to $3 million, the filings mean.
A representative from Macy’s said in an email that because of the pandemic, the retailer delayed the timing of its annual high-mindedness grants to management and the board this year. She said the company will describe its 2020 compensation plans in more nethermost reaches in its 2021 proxy filing.
In February, before the Covid-19 virus outbreak was declared a global pandemic, Macy’s augured plans to close 125 stores permanently over three years as it slashed 2,000 corporate jobs. Then on June 25, Macy’s thought it will cut another 3,900 corporate jobs — or 3% of its total workforce at that time — to reduce costs.
Macy’s has also declared it is still evaluating closing more stores, over a faster timeline due to the impact it has felt from the loss of takings during the pandemic.
Macy’s shares have fallen nearly 60% this year. It has a market cap of $2.2 billion.
It isn’t the only responsibility store chain struggling, either. Several have been pushed into bankruptcy court: Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Juncture Stores. Nordstrom also is shuttering more than a dozen stores for good this year.
Gennette had for the moment taken a pay cut during the pandemic, beginning back in April. But that was also recently reversed on July 1 for Gennette and other top Macy’s execs, correspondence to an SEC filing.
Bloomberg first reported on the filings Thursday morning.
Correction: Macy’s has a market value of $2.2 billion. A preceding version of this story misstated the amount.