Former Target CEO Received a Higher Pay Out Than All Laid Off Canadian Workers Combined

We live in an age and system where colossal f*ck-ups are rewarded with large sums of money.

This is no secret.

But when you see it so blatantly in your own backyard, it pisses people off. In this case, the injustice was heaped onto something Canadians were already pretty rattled about.

On Wednesday it was reported that Target – which terminated its operations entirely across the country – paid out a staggering $61 million U.S. to outgoing CEO Gregg Steinhafel last spring. A more detailed breakdown of the sum can be found here.

Again, handouts like this in the corporate world aren’t really new.

The disgust lies in the fact that Target’s 17,600 (former) Canadian employees are receiving just $56 million U.S. collectively as the American retail giant slowly funnels out over the next four months. Not to mention, Target’s failed Canadian experiment was largely guided by Steinhafel and also cited as a major reason for his resignation in last May.

The response, obviously, is bitter. And we couldn’t find a more fitting quote for the situation:

“When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?'”
-Don Marquis

Nearly 20,000 Canadians will be looking for new jobs this summer while Target’s former top dog cashes out more in severance than every laid-off worker combined, walked off scot-free from a major credit card data breach, and otherwise earned 597 times the pay of the average Target employee.

What do you call a man with crosshairs on his head? Oh, that’s right – a target. 

#NOTABLE

Cover image of just the CEO from Forbes

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