In the early months of the pandemic, as COVID-19 swept across the country, the grocery chain Kroger announced that employees in its stores and warehouses would get an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay. When the company ended the so-called Hero Bonus two months later, even though workers were still at risk of contracting the virus on the job, CEO Rodney McMullen came under blistering criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders and others. How much did the public relations disaster cost McMullen? Not a penny. In fact, Bloomberg reports that a regulatory filing on Thursday shows that Kroger gave him a $22.4 million pay package, his highest ever, last year. The chain—which had record revenues last year—did not treat its rank-and-file workers as well as its CEO: the median pay for employees fell 8 percent in 2020.
