Salaries In Line With Earnings

New York — Taking a longer view and measuring executive salaries versus company performance from 1992 through 1994, every supplier in the sample for whom three-year data is available took home raises that were less than the gain in their company's profits.

Ditto the retailers in this year's survey of executive compensation. The vast majority — two-thirds, or 48 of the 69 with three-year data available — actually underperformed their companies in terms of salary growth.

Mohawk CEO Jeffrey Lorberbaum had a 25.3 percent increase in total compensation over the three-year period, while Mohawk profits grew somewhat faster, 29.6 percent. At Mohawk Home, Bill Kilbride's compensation package grew by 4.6 percent, compared with Mohawk's earnings gain of almost 30 percent.

Profits at Crown Crafts were virtually flat over the three-year period, declining just 0.6 percent, but CEO E. Randall Chestnut took a pay cut of 32.9 percent.

At Stein Mart, Michael Fisher's salary rose more than twice as fast as the retailer's profits, 176.8 percent, compared with the retailer's earnings gain of 83.5 percent. And at Federated, Terry Lundgren bagged a 23.7 percent increase in pay, as Federated's profits slid 15.8 percent. At Pier 1, the company's profits skidded 53.3 percent, yet CEO Marvin Girouard took a 5.3 percent raise.