Shoprite's lowest-paid full-time worker earns about R64,000 a year, while CEO Pieter Engelbrecht earned R117.8 million in the latest financial year: roughly 1,841 times more. That is his total earned pay, which rose 35% and includes a once-off award that has not all been paid in cash. On the cash he actually received, about R73 million, he still earned around 1,138 times the lowest-paid worker.
Now shareholders have more power to weigh in. This is the first AGM season since changes to the Companies Act made shareholder votes on pay binding, and Shoprite faces that test at its annual general meeting on 6 November. It is also asking shareholders to approve a special award that, in its own words, would "secure his continued employment for a strategic six-year period".
What Pick n Pay and Woolworths pay their CEOs
Shoprite isn't alone. Pick n Pay's Sean Summers received R25.2 million in fixed pay in the year to March, with no bonus. At Woolworths, former CEO Roy Bagattini's package reached nearly R80 million in 2025, even though the group missed its financial targets. He received no annual bonus, but his pay included R38.8 million from a share award granted when he joined in 2020, to make up for incentives he gave up at his previous employer. Even without bonuses, the guaranteed pay these executives receive is enormous compared with what ordinary workers earn. Shareholders have noticed: Woolworths set new CEO Sam Ngumeni's guaranteed pay lower than his predecessor's, after feedback that Bagattini's was "considered high relative to peers".
But there's a reason companies pay so much for a CEO. Think of a top football club: the manager's decisions shape how the whole organisation performs, which is why they might earn 100 times more than the locker room supervisor. Both jobs matter, but the manager has more influence over the club's results, affecting everything from sponsors and ticket sales to whether that supervisor still has a job. Companies make a similar argument about CEOs: the right person's judgment can influence thousands of jobs and billions of rands in value. And with few people capable of doing the job at that level, competition for them pushes pay higher.
But that doesn't settle how high the salary should be. A business's success also depends on the people stocking shelves, managing stores and serving customers. And a CEO receives their guaranteed pay even when the company performs poorly. Shoprite, the country's largest private-sector employer, says its entry-level general assistants earn, on average, 14.5% above the national minimum wage. People can agree that the job carries exceptional responsibility and still differ on what that responsibility is worth.
Bonuses that pay out, and awards that come back
Then there are bonuses, which are meant to reward results. Engelbrecht's package included R36.4 million from a once-off "super stretch" incentive, after Shoprite grew its market share by 3.2% against a 2.6% target and delivered shareholder returns of 49.9%, compared with 8.9% for its peers. Summers, on the other hand, forfeited one million shares after Pick n Pay delayed its break-even goal by a year, only for the company to plan a new award worth just over R25 million, most of it tied to its core business breaking even in the 2029 financial year. At Shoprite, proxy adviser ISS has criticised "the repeated use of exceptional remuneration arrangements", as well as a change that allowed one bonus measure to pay out in full even though performance fell below its threshold.
So, are they paid too much? It depends on what the pay is buying, and on whether shareholders believe the salary and incentives reflect the value a CEO brings. ISS and Glass Lewis, the world's two biggest proxy advisers, want investors to reject Shoprite's new plan, and some big foreign pension funds plan to vote no. Christo Wiese, who controls about 41% of Shoprite's voting rights and sits on its remuneration committee, has defended the award, which needs 50% plus one of the votes to pass. Binding shareholder votes are exactly what this conversation needed.
