Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder has scored a $12.1 million pay packet in his final full year as the Coles and Bunnings operator's boss.
Mr Goyder's fixed remuneration remained steady at $3.35 million, but his annual incentive payment rocketed nearly fourfold to $4.1 million and he picked up another $4.2 million in long-term incentives.
Wesfarmers posted a record annual profit of $2.87 billion for 2016/17 - up 22 per cent excluding the prior year's significant items - despite supermarket giant Coles suffering its first earnings drop in nine years.
While Mr Goyder took a substantial pay cut to about $5.5 million in 2016, his final payout is still a big improvement on the $9.9 million he received the year prior to that.
He will step down from the retail conglomerate at its November 16 annual general meeting after 12 years in the top job.
In that time, Mr Godyer has helped the company outperform the general market, chairman Michael Chaney said in the Wesfarmers annual report released on Wednesday.
Rob Scott will succeed Mr Goyder, while Anthony Gianotti will take over from Terry Bowen as chief financial officer.
Wesfarmers has already said Mr Scott's salary as CEO will be far lower than Mr Goyder's.
Mr Chaney also criticised the federal government over its 457 visa changes, the difficulty it has in passing legislation in the Senate, and an inflexible enterprise bargaining process.
"Several of the challenges facing all companies doing business in Australia today occur at the government level," he said.
"The increasing tendency of governments to adopt populist policies counts against productive economic outcomes."
He said the tighter 457 visa rules have the potential to "deprive Australia of the skills it badly needs to operate effectively".
