The billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn is taking his recent campaign of animal advocacy to the nation's biggest supermarket chain, adding Kroger to a list that already includes fast-food giant McDonald's.
In a letter Tuesday to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, Icahn said he's seeking two seats on the company's board to fight "deplorable animal suffering" and an "unconscionable" wage gap between McMullen and his average worker.
McMullen was paid $22.4 million in 2020, a year that had Kroger "inexplicably removing the workers' meager $2 an hour raise," Icahn wrote. Kroger ended what it called "hero pay" after briefly offering the pandemic-fueled incentive to its more than 500,000 workers in April 2020. It instead switched to paying $130 million in bonuses, with full-time workers receiving $400 and part-timers $200. The median Kroger employee earned $24,617 that year, making the ratio of its CEO to that worker 909 to 1, according to the company's 2021 proxy statement.
"Kroger's inaction towards creating meaningful animal welfare policies and verification methods is totally out of step with consumer desire and current legislation," Icahn wrote. "The Board of Kroger is also completely tone-deaf to other growing ESG concerns, specifically that of providing a living wage to your employees. You've helmed a company that certainly has the gravitas to steer change, yet instead have condoned cruelty towards those who are the most defenseless."
Kroger has increased associate wages...
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