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Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis has been given a £6.42m pay package, including £4.8m in bonuses.
Lewis, who is set to leave the big four grocer in September, has seen his pay increase by more than a third due to an increase in both annual and share price bonuses to £2.4m each.
Last month, Tesco defended its £635m dividend payout to shareholders, despite it receiving a £585m tax break.
On 8 April, the company’s board approved a final dividend of 6.50p, bringing the full-year dividend to 9.15p. According to the Guardian, Tesco chairman John Allan said paying its shareholders was the “right thing to do” after they backed the grocer through a five-year accounting scandal.
Lewis’ payout is also not without controversy as his long-term share bonus was boosted by Tesco’s remuneration committee deciding to remove Ocado from its set of rivals – increasing Tesco’s share performance against its rival – meaning Lewis scoring an additional £1.6m.
In its report Steve Golsby, remuneration committee chair, said: “The Committee took all relevant factors into consideration to ensure that the outturn was a fair reflection of performance.
“In particular, the Committee considered the appropriateness of the TSR benchmark in view of significant changes in the retail landscape that were unforeseen when the targets were set.”
He added: “As Ocado has seen a significant shift away from being a retail-focused business towards a technology-focused business during the performance period, the Committee decided to remove Ocado from the TSR benchmark from 16 May 2018. This was the date on which a clear pattern emerged of Ocado pursuing a technology strategy.”
