In April, the sudden death of Lee Delaney, the CEO of BJ’s Warehouse Club, set into motion a chain of executive moves in which former Controller Laura Felice replaced CFO Bob Eddy, who took over as CEO.
With all due respect to the difficulties and grief involved, I couldn’t help noticing the salaries being offered to the newly named executives. The new CEO received the same $1.2 million that Delaney had earned, but Felice’s salary was set at $600,000, nearly $200,000 less than what Eddy had been making.
I’m usually the last person to argue for higher pay for top executives. For nearly two decades now, I’ve mined corporate filings to find examples of crazy pay and perks. But it’s hard for me to ignore a situation where a woman is being paid so much less to do the same job.