Starbucks CEO paid $16 million in 2011 fiscal year

[January 28, 2012]  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was given a pay package worth roughly $16 million in the company's 2011 fiscal year.

Starbucks performed well last year, but Schultz's compensation shrank by 26 percent compared to 2010, when he was given $22 million for bringing the company roaring back from the recession and more than doubling its profit.

Schultz received a nearly $1.4 million salary in 2011, according to a document filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's up 8 percent from the $1.3 million salary in the prior year. His cash performance bonus, as well as the value of his stock and option awards, shrank.

Starbucks gave him stock awards in 2011 worth $5.5 million, which is down 48 percent from the $10.5 million he was awarded the prior year. He was also given option awards worth nearly $6 million, down 4 percent from the $6.2 million in the prior year.

The company gave him a cash performance bonus of nearly $3 million in 2011, down from $3.5 million the prior year.

Schultz also received $235,294 in other perks such as security and use of the company plane, compared with $231,664 in perks the year before.

Starbucks continued its strong performance in 2011, as more customers began to visit its stores around the globe. The Seattle-based company's 2011 fiscal year revenue increased 7 percent to $11.7 billion and its profit jumped nearly 32 percent to $1.25 billion, or $1.62 per share.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The value that a company assigned to an executive's stock and option awards for 2011 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company's stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options.

[Associated Press; By SARAH SKIDMORE]

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