Sainsbury’s chief executive was paid almost £8m last year.
Justin King received a 60% increase in his previous year’s pay packet, the Times has reported.
King’s basic pay for the period from March 2009 to March 2010, including salary, pension supplements and bonuses, came to £3.35m. This was then topped up with a £4.52m gain on share options earned through a long-term incentive scheme.
The CEO owns shares in the supermarket giant that were worth £5.92m in March.
During the period, Sainsbury’s pre-tax profits rose to £610m, up 17.5%.
Finance director Darren Shapland was paid £3m, also seeing a substantial increase in his basic pay last year – up by 59% to £1.54m – and received a further £1.46m through long-term share options.
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About 127,000 Sainsbury’s workers also shared in the company’s biggest ever bonus pot of £80m, but basic salaries for the grocer’s executive directors have been frozen for 2010-11.
At Sainsbury’s stores, like-for-like sales growth slumped to 1.7% in the 11 weeks to 20 March, compared with 6.2% at the same time last year.
