UPS Chief Executive David Abney's pay went up more than 20 percent last year even as the package deliverer struggled with weakening profits from dropping off online orders at homes.
Abney's total compensation was $13.7 million last year, compared to almost $11.3 million the previous year, according to its proxy filed this week. His pay included a $1.1 million salary, almost $10.2 million in stock-related awards and a $387,741 bonus.
About a third of his raise came from an increase in the value of his pension benefits, which is partly driven by accounting estimates.
Other top executives at the Sandy Springs-based company received similar or bigger raises in percentage terms, according to the proxy.
“Under David’s leadership as CEO, UPS ended 2016 with positive results in many areas including record earnings,” the company said in its filing.
“However, the challenges of forecasting and adapting the UPS business model to the growing (business-to-consumer) environment (caused costs to grow) at a disproportionate rate and kept overall results below expectations,” the company said. UPS said the strong dollar also crimped the company’s bottom line.
UPS reported $3.4 billion in profits last year, down 29 percent from 2015's $4.8 billion profit. Part of the profit decline was due to billions of dollars in pension costs for its U.S. and overseas workers.
The company’s revenues increased more than 4 percent last year, to $60.9 billion.
But some analysts were disappointed that UPS’ increased reliance on online order deliveries was hurting its profits.
