Framingham retailer TJX Cos. has been a standout in the industry, especially in the brick-and-mortar world, and until the coronavirus pandemic, the company was continuing to expand and see revenue rise.
Ernie Herrman, the company’s CEO since 2016, was rewarded with compensation exceeded $19 million in TJX’s fiscal 2020 year, according to the company’s new annual filing on April 23.
Herrman’s salary for fiscal 2021 has been temporarily reduced along with other executives while workers are furloughed during the pandemic. But as the head of the largest Central Massachusetts public company by market capitalization, Herrman has been among the highest paid.
The 59-year-old has a base salary of $1.6 million joined by more than $9 million in stock awards and more than $5 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. His annual total compensation of nearly $19.1 million was up $260,906, or a little over 1%, over the prior year.
Herrman, who has also been on the TJX board of directors since 2015, has been with TJX since 1989, when he began holding various merchandising positions. He became the COO of the company’s Marmaxx division in 2004 and the Marmaxx president in 2005. He was promoted to senior executive vice president in 2008 and president in 2011.
Carol Meyrowitz, his predecessor as CEO and now executive chairman, earned nearly $10.5 million in fiscal 2020. Scott Goldenberg, TJX’s CFO, earned nearly $6.7 million.
TJX, which has 270,000 workers worldwide, said in early April it is furloughing a majority of its hourly retail and distribution center employees in the United States and many more elsewhere. Its first-quarter revenue this year, which was reported in February, was up 10% annually to surpass $12 billion.Â
