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The $10.8 million stock award made up the bulk of Vitale's pay package. Half of it is contingent on Post hitting three-year targets for shareholder return, while the other half vests automatically over the next three years.

Vitale also received $1.2 million in salary, $49,583 in deferred compensation earnings and $37,949 worth of personal flights on company planes, plus $25,023 for taxes on those flights.

Post says in its , filed Monday, that it knows of other companies that altered bonus targets because of the pandemic. Post stuck with its original targets even as the pandemic hurt its food service business, with the result that four of its five top officers got no bonus.

The exception was Howard Friedman, president of Post Consumer Brands, who got a $1.05 million bonus. His division benefited as consumers ate more meals at home and spent more money at supermarkets.

Post, a food manufacturer based in Brentwood, said that instead of paying executive bonuses it "prioritized our front-line workers." The company gave $7.8 million in bonuses to 4,000 manufacturing employees and kept its food-service employees working 32 hours a week, ensuring that they remained eligible for benefits even as demand fell sharply.

Post also said Vitale and other top executives won't receive a salary increase in 2021.

Post calculated that Vitale earned 193 times as much as a median employee. Median pay for its 11,500 employees was $63,353.

Post's fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Its which included some one-time charges.

Here's what ºüÀêÊÓƵ CEOs earned in 2019: