Hilfiger No Stranger To Six Figure Salary

Casualwear fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger Corp. paid its honorary chairman, principal designer and namesake, Thomas J. Hilfiger, a salary of USD18.3 million for the year ended March 31, down about 11 percent from a year earlier. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, the company paid Hilfiger a salary of USD20.6 million. The executive received no bonus in either period.

The company said Monday in its annual report that under an employment agreement Hilfiger signed before the company's initial public offering, it pays him an annual salary of USD900,000 plus 1.5% of net sales over USD48.3 million for Tommy Hilfiger USA and its units. The company gave former chief executive and current executive chairman Joel J. Horowitz total compensation of USD8.9 million in fiscal 2004, compared with USD8.3 million the previous year.

Horowitz got an USD8.2 million bonus and a USD676,595 salary for fiscal 2004, compared with a USD7.6 million bonus and USD662,678 salary for fiscal 2003. Horowitz receives an annual bonus equal to 5 percent of Tommy Hilfiger's operating earnings under an incentive plan approved by shareholders, according to the annual report.

The company said Horowitz will receive a USD1 million base salary in his position as executive chairman of Tommy Hilfiger Corp. and Tommy Hilfiger USA for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, 2005, under an April 1 employment agreement. Horowitz has served as executive chairman since February 2003. Shares of the company closed Monday at USD14.01, down 19 cents, or 1.3 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.