Target CEO Brian Cornell earned $9.9 million in 2024, down 87% from when his compensation peaked at $77.5 million in 2020.

His 2024 pay was down 45% from the year before and was his lowest since 2016.

The declining pay is an indication of the financial struggles the Minneapolis-based retailer has endured in recent years, as performance-based equity awards provided a declining share of his overall compensation.

Total compensation for the year ended Jan. 31: $9,858,980

Salary: $1,400,000

Bonus: $785,400

Non-equity incentive pay: $1,538,320

Other compensation: $596,391

Value realized on vesting shares: $5,538,869

CEO pay ratio: 753 to 1

Median employee pay: $27,090

Total fiscal 2024 shareholder return: 2.2%

Notes: Cornell's $1.4 million annual salary has not changed since 2019, but annual incentive pay and payouts from long-term equity awards have.

Target fell shy of annual performance targets in 2023 and missed by a wider margin in 2024.

Target executives get equity awards that reward medium-term performance over three years in relation to its peers. For the 2022-2024 performance period, Target's performance fell short of sales, earnings and return on invested capital sales goals. That earned Target executives 61.6% of the combined goal.

Executives also get performance-based restricted stock units that vested over the same 2022-2024 period and are based on total shareholder return measured against its peers. During the period, Target ranked 14th out of 20 among its peers.

Cornell realized $5.5 million from those performance-based equity awards, while in the prior year he earned $13.6 million from similar awards.

Target in its proxy report has Cornell's pay rising every year he has been CEO. But it's calculated under a different methodology than the Star Tribune uses.

The total in the proxies count the grant date value of performance-based equity awards. Those are estimates of what could be realized if the company hits performance goals and the stock price of Target increases over the years.

If the company underperforms on the goals, as it did, the realized pay could be less. The Star Tribune calculates realized compensation, meaning the value of stock awards when they vest and not when they are granted.