How C.H. Robinson Pays
C.H. Robinson's CHR-01 to CHR-12 operations, technical and leadership research ladder priced across 30 markets, with 60/40 PSU and RSU executive equity, a 15 percent discount ESPP, an $11.05M CEO package at 178 to 1, and a thin but fully disclosed H-1B wage record.
Band Hierarchy
C.H. Robinson does not publish a grade catalogue, title-to-band rules or a dual-ladder equivalency table. The CHR-01 to CHR-12 framework below is reconstructed from public job titles, two official posting ranges, crowdsourced salary records and the disclosed executive roles, and it stops where proxy disclosure begins.
Operations and technical ladder — CHR-01 through CHR-06
Management and leadership ladder — CHR-07 through CHR-12
Disclosed executive layer
Track divergence
Hierarchy qualifications and legacy structures
- The CHR-01 to CHR-12 codes are a research framework. C.H. Robinson has never published grade codes, band minimums, midpoints or a title-to-grade rule, and its careers material talks about career paths and internal opportunity without naming a single level.
- Only two employee rows rest on an employer-published range: the Houston Senior Pricing Analyst posting at $70,200 to $111,000 and the Scottsdale Director Vertical posting at $127,500 to $295,900. Everything between them is interpolated.
- The two ladders overlap by design. CHR-07 supervisor sits at the same seniority as CHR-03 specialist and CHR-08 manager at the same seniority as CHR-04 professional, which is why the geographic factors are interpolated on seniority rather than on band number.
- This is a logistics company, not an IT-services firm with an onshore and offshore split. India, Poland and Czechia carry forwarding, shared services, product, analytics and technology work, so a blanket offshore label misreads what those offices do.
- The CHR-13 named-executive cohort and the CHR-14 chief executive row are deliberately excluded from the band table and carried in the executive section instead, because a single global executive number would drag every offshore market toward parity at the top of the ladder.
Peer-level mapping
| Band | Archetype | Peer mapping | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHR01 | Entry Operations / Graduate | Expeditors entry operations, J.B. Hunt Level 1, RXO associate | C.H. Robinson publishes no grade codes, so every peer mapping here is a scope comparison rather than a company-confirmed equivalence.Eden Prairie median inside an observed $38,000 to $58,000 posting and aggregator spread; no routine equity evidenced at this band. |
| CHR02 | Coordinator / Representative | Expeditors agent, J.B. Hunt Level 2, GXO coordinator | Freight brokerage titles are not standardised across the peer set; the same title can sit a band higher at a smaller broker.Eden Prairie median inside an observed $45,000 to $72,000 spread; equity is ESPP participation only. |
| CHR03 | Specialist / Senior Operations | Senior associate or Level 3 across the logistics peer set | Licensed customs brokers command a premium the peer mapping does not capture, and the licence is a legal qualification rather than a band.Anchored on the official Houston Senior Pricing Analyst posting of $70,200 to $111,000 base, which explicitly excludes variable pay. |
| CHR04 | Professional / Engineer I | IC2 to IC3 on a technology-company ladder | C.H. Robinson prices technology roles against logistics peers rather than software companies, so this row sits below a pure-technology IC2.Eden Prairie median inside a $75,000 to $130,000 observed spread from public postings and Levels.fyi records. |
| CHR05 | Senior Professional / Engineer II–III | Senior IC or IC4 on a technology-company ladder | Software Engineer III is also the most commonly H-1B sponsored title, so the visa record gives this row an unusually direct wage check.Eden Prairie median inside a $105,000 to $180,000 observed spread; the $133,829 fiscal 2025 H-1B average base sits inside it. |
| CHR06 | Lead / Principal / Architect | Staff to principal, IC5 to IC6 on a technology-company ladder | This is the top of the individual-contributor path in the public record; no distinguished-engineer tier is evidenced above it.Eden Prairie median inside a $145,000 to $260,000 observed spread; the first band where a recurring equity grant is plausible rather than exceptional. |
| CHR07 | Supervisor / Team Lead | First-line manager across the logistics peer set | First-line leadership starts here on cash terms below the CHR-05 senior IC row, so the move is scope rather than money.Eden Prairie median inside a $55,000 to $90,000 observed spread from public supervisor postings. |
| CHR08 | Manager / Account Manager | Manager or M1 across the logistics peer set | Account managers carry a customer-facing incentive that balances volume against margin, so their realised variable pay diverges from operations managers on the same band.Eden Prairie median inside a $78,000 to $135,000 observed spread; equity remains selective rather than universal. |
| CHR09 | Senior Manager / General Manager | Senior manager or M2 across the logistics peer set | General manager is a branch profit-and-loss role at C.H. Robinson and a functional role at several peers, so the title travels poorly.Eden Prairie median inside a $105,000 to $190,000 observed spread; the first band where annualised equity exceeds the target bonus. |
| CHR10 | Director / Vertical Leader | Director or M3 across the logistics peer set | The posted range spans $168,400 from bottom to top, so a single director figure hides more variation than the peer mapping implies.Anchored on the public Director Vertical posting of $127,500 to $295,900 base; the only leadership row with a disclosed employer range. |
| CHR11 | Senior Director / Managing Director | Senior director or M4 across the logistics peer set | Country managing directors outside North America carry this band with a materially smaller equity component than the United States anchor.Modeled from the CHR-10 posting and the CHR-13 proxy floor; no employer range is published between them. |
| CHR12 | Vice President | VP or M5 across the logistics peer set | Business presidents such as the head of North American Surface Transportation sit above this row and are disclosed individually in the proxy.Modeled below the disclosed $575,000 named-executive salary floor; the top employee band before proxy disclosure begins. |
Critical evidence warning
C.H. Robinson publishes no salary ranges, band minimums or midpoints for ordinary employees, no bonus target grid, no rating scale and no merit matrix. Every non-executive figure on this page is a third-party observation or a calibrated model built on one, and it should be used for orientation rather than quoted as a company pay band. Crowdsourced Indian samples in particular often rest on one to three submissions.
Compensation by Band — Eden Prairie
Low / median / high annual values at 1.00× base and 1.00× total-compensation factors versus Eden Prairie. Total equals base plus bonus plus annualized equity.
| Band | Title | Base | Variable | Total TC | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHR01 | Entry Operations / Graduate 0–1 years · reported | $41K – $55K | 3% | $49K $42K – $57K | — |
| CHR02 | Coordinator / Representative 1–3 years · reported | $49K – $67K | 5% | $61K $52K – $70K | — |
| CHR03 | Specialist / Senior Operations 2–5 years · reported | $64K – $86K | 8% | $82K $70K – $94K | $800 |
| CHR04 | Professional / Engineer I 2–5 years · reported | $87K – $117K | 8% | $112K $95K – $129K | $2K |
| CHR05 | Senior Professional / Engineer II–III 5–8 years · reported | $119K – $161K | 12% | $165K $140K – $190K | $8K |
| CHR06 | Lead / Principal / Architect 8–12 years · reported | $166K – $224K | 15% | $253K $215K – $291K | $29K |
| CHR07 | Supervisor / Team Lead 3–7 years · modeled | $61K – $83K | 10% | $83K $71K – $96K | $4K |
| CHR08 | Manager / Account Manager 6–10 years · modeled | $89K – $121K | 15% | $133K $113K – $153K | $13K |
| CHR09 | Senior Manager / General Manager 9–14 years · modeled | $123K – $167K | 25% | $231K $197K – $266K | $50K |
| CHR10 | Director / Vertical Leader 12–18 years · verified | $162K – $219K | 35% | $357K $303K – $410K | $100K |
| CHR11 | Senior Director / Managing Director 15–20 years · modeled | $200K – $270K | 45% | $532K $453K – $612K | $192K |
| CHR12 | Vice President 18+ years · modeled | $281K – $380K | 60% | $911K $775K – $1.05M | $383K |
Total Compensation Range by Band
Total compensation in Eden Prairie across the employee bands. Ranges are planning envelopes around the median, not offer bands.
Global Footprint & Pay Arbitrage
C.H. Robinson operated in 37 countries from roughly 180 leased offices at the end of 2025, with 73.8 percent of its people in North America. Eden Prairie is the pay anchor and every other market in this report is calibrated against its medians, with the calibration allowed to move across the ladder rather than sitting at one number.
Office and market catalogue — calibration factors versus Eden Prairie
| Location | Likely office profile | Presence | Base | TC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Eden Prairie United States · USD | Global headquarters; executive, technology, shared services and North American Surface Transportation | Official office directory | 1.00× | 1.00× |
Chicago United States · USD | Largest commercial and operations market outside the headquarters | Official office directory | 1.05× | 1.05× |
Kansas City United States · USD | Large North American Surface Transportation facility and operations hub | Official office directory | 0.90× | 0.90× |
Dallas United States · USD | Surface transportation and commercial operations | Official office directory | 0.95× | 0.95× |
Atlanta United States · USD | Surface transportation and commercial operations | Official office directory | 0.94× | 0.94× |
Phoenix and Scottsdale United States · USD | Commercial and vertical leadership roles; source of the public director range | Official job posting | 0.95× | 0.95× |
Los Angeles United States · USD | Highest-cost United States forwarding and commercial market | Official office directory | 1.12× | 1.12× |
Houston United States · USD | Project logistics and forwarding; source of the official pricing-analyst range | Official job posting | 0.98× | 0.98× |
Laredo United States · USD | Cross-border customs brokerage and surface transportation operations | Official office directory | 0.83× | 0.83× |
Bengaluru India · INR | Technology, analytics and shared services; the India pay anchor | Official office directory | 0.07× | 0.07× |
Chennai India · INR | Forwarding operations and shared services | Official office directory | 0.07× | 0.07× |
Gurugram India · INR | Delhi NCR commercial, forwarding and shared services | Official office directory | 0.08× | 0.08× |
Mumbai India · INR | Forwarding and management roles; source of the India benefits posting | Official job posting | 0.08× | 0.08× |
London United Kingdom · GBP | Regional commercial and forwarding leadership; the United Kingdom anchor | Official office directory | 0.58× | 0.58× |
Manchester United Kingdom · GBP | Forwarding operations across the north-west of England | Official office directory | 0.51× | 0.51× |
Sydney Australia · AUD | Oceania leadership, commercial and forwarding; the Australia anchor | Official office directory | 0.95× | 0.95× |
Auckland New Zealand · NZD | Oceania forwarding office serving trans-Tasman and Pacific lanes | Official office directory | 0.82× | 0.82× |
Amsterdam Netherlands · EUR | European headquarters and forwarding; the continental Europe anchor | Official office directory | 0.68× | 0.68× |
Frankfurt Germany · EUR | Air freight, forwarding and commercial market | Official office directory | 0.69× | 0.69× |
Warsaw Poland · PLN | Technology, shared services and forwarding | Official job posting | 0.29× | 0.29× |
Prague Czechia · CZK | Forwarding and central European shared services | Official office directory | 0.30× | 0.30× |
Toronto Canada · CAD | Surface transportation, commercial and forwarding for Canada | Official office directory | 0.85× | 0.85× |
Monterrey Mexico · MXN | Cross-border surface transportation and operations hub; the Mexico anchor | Official office directory | 0.22× | 0.22× |
Mexico City Mexico · MXN | National commercial, forwarding and country leadership hub | Official office directory | 0.24× | 0.24× |
São Paulo Brazil · BRL | Latin America forwarding and commercial hub | Official office directory | 0.20× | 0.20× |
Shanghai China · CNY | Asia-Pacific forwarding and commercial hub; the China anchor | Official office directory | 0.30× | 0.30× |
Hong Kong Hong Kong · HKD | Regional forwarding, commercial and finance hub | Official office directory | 0.53× | 0.53× |
Tokyo Japan · JPY | Japan commercial and forwarding hub | Official office directory | 0.55× | 0.55× |
Singapore Singapore · SGD | Asia-Pacific regional and forwarding hub; the South East Asia anchor | Official office directory | 0.48× | 0.48× |
Dubai United Arab Emirates · AED | Middle East forwarding and commercial hub | Official office directory | 0.45× | 0.45× |
C.H. Robinson publishes an office directory but no city-level headcount, so this catalogue cannot rank offices by size. The 2025 disclosure of about 180 leased locations across 37 countries is the only footprint measure the company gives, and the February 2025 sale of Europe Surface Transportation makes pre-2025 European office counts unreliable.
Eden Prairie anchor medians — the basis of every modeled cell
| Band | Base | Stock | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHR01 | $48K | $0 | $1K | $49K |
| CHR02 | $58K | $0 | $3K | $61K |
| CHR03 | $75K | $800 | $6K | $82K |
| CHR04 | $102K | $2K | $8K | $112K |
| CHR05 | $140K | $8K | $17K | $165K |
| CHR06 | $195K | $29K | $29K | $253K |
| CHR10 | $190K | $100K | $67K | $357K |
- The Eden Prairie column is the anchor. It is the global headquarters and carries executive, technology, shared services and North American Surface Transportation populations, so it is the only city where every band is genuinely staffed.
- Two anchor rows come from employer-published ranges. The Houston Senior Pricing Analyst posting sets CHR-03 at $70,200 to $111,000 base and states that it excludes variable compensation; the Scottsdale Director Vertical posting sets CHR-10 at $127,500 to $295,900.
- India is calibrated on Bengaluru, where Glassdoor India shows graduate roles at ₹3–4 lakh, logistics analyst around ₹5 lakh, software developer at ₹9–18 lakh, data scientist at ₹12–14 lakh and lead software engineer at ₹19–21 lakh. Sample sizes are frequently in the low single digits.
- Australia is calibrated on Sydney using SEEK estimates that run from import operator at A$65,000 to A$80,000 up to general manager at A$180,000 to A$210,000. SEEK labels these as estimates rather than company-confirmed bands.
- United States cities carry a flat base factor because C.H. Robinson postings differentiate by metro cost rather than by ladder position, but their total factor still moves because equity grants are set in dollars nationally and are not city-adjusted.
- India base pay calibrates at 0.075 of the anchor at CHR-01 and 0.35 at CHR-12, while total compensation reaches 0.45, so the gap narrows from about thirteen times at entry level to a little over two times at vice-president level.
Model rules
- Every modeled cell is the Eden Prairie median multiplied by the city base or total factor and then by the 25 August 2026 foreign-exchange snapshot. Local currency values move with that snapshot and are illustrations rather than offers.
- A total compensation cell is base plus target variable pay plus annualised equity, and nothing else. The source bundle added a notional 4 to 10 percent employer benefit load on top; that is employer cost rather than pay, so it has been stripped and the totals rebuilt from the three components.
- Base and total carry separate factors because equity does not compress the way salary does. Outside the United States the source model scales grant value by the square root of the pay factor, which is why an offshore total factor sits above its base factor at senior bands.
- Factors are interpolated linearly on seniority between the CHR-01 value and the CHR-12 value. The underlying research curve is slightly convex for emerging markets, so mid-ladder cells in India, Mexico, Brazil and China can read up to a quarter above the bundle's own tabulation.
- Sign-on payments, relocation, retention awards, severance and the value of ESPP discount are excluded from every cell. So is the CHR-13 named-executive cohort, which is disclosure rather than a market band.
- Where no direct city observation exists the cell is marked modeled and should be treated as a planning envelope, not a benchmark. Roughly two thirds of the 67 markets in the source bundle fall into that category.
Variable Pay & Annual Cash Incentive
The named-executive plan is disclosed line by line and the employee plan is not disclosed at all. C.H. Robinson says only that pay reflects individual, team and enterprise performance and that customer-facing incentives balance volume against margin. The band targets below are therefore a research model; the executive rows are filings.
| Band | Target | Mechanism | Recent payout |
|---|---|---|---|
CHR-01 Entry Operations / Graduate | 3% of base | Role-specific incentive or spot bonus where one applies; several entry operations roles carry no target at all. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-02 Coordinator / Representative | 5% of base | Role-specific incentive or spot bonus; carrier and account coordinators are the most likely to carry a volume component. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-03 Specialist / Senior Operations | 8% of base | Individual, team and enterprise performance. The official Houston posting confirms the range excludes variable pay but does not state a target. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-04 Professional / Engineer I | 8% of base | Individual, team and enterprise performance; exact weights are not published. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-05 Senior Professional / Engineer II–III | 12% of base | Individual, team and enterprise performance; exact weights are not published. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-06 Lead / Principal / Architect | 15% of base | Individual, team and enterprise performance, with a wider observed spread of 10 to 25 percent than the bands below. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-07 Supervisor / Team Lead | 10% of base | Team delivery and enterprise performance; exact weights are not published. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-08 Manager / Account Manager | 15% of base | Team and enterprise performance for operations managers; account managers carry a customer plan that balances volume against margin. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-09 Senior Manager / General Manager | 25% of base | Branch or portfolio result plus enterprise performance; the observed spread runs 15 to 35 percent. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-10 Director / Vertical Leader | 35% of base | Vertical or functional result plus enterprise performance; the observed spread runs 20 to 50 percent. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-11 Senior Director / Managing Director | 45% of base | Regional or global practice result plus enterprise performance; the observed spread runs 30 to 65 percent. | Not publicly disclosed |
CHR-12 Vice President | 60% of base | Enterprise-weighted plan approaching the disclosed executive design; the observed spread runs 40 to 85 percent. | Not publicly disclosed |
Executive incentive targets — percent of salary
Named-executive outcomes
| Executive | Target | Paid | Attainment |
|---|---|---|---|
| David P. Bozeman | $1,687,500 | $2,879,618 | 171% of target |
| Damon J. Lee | $721,000 | $1,230,343 | 171% of target |
| Arun D. Rajan | $1,124,760 | $1,919,335 | 171% of target |
| Dorothy G. Capers | $431,250 | $485,897 | 171% of target, prorated for time in role |
| Michael J. Short | $546,875 | $933,743 | 171% of target |
Employee payout timing and history
No target percentage, payout history, effective date or payment month is published for the general employee population. C.H. Robinson states that benefits are reviewed annually and that compensation incorporates individual, team and enterprise performance, but no company-wide review or increase month has been disclosed. Executive grants are commonly made in February and director grants around the annual meeting, which is the only recurring compensation calendar in the public record.
Sales and special incentives
The company describes customer-facing incentive plans as balancing volume against margin, which is the closest it comes to publishing a commission structure. No commission curve, accelerator, cap, draw or clawback term is disclosed, and no project-incentive schedule is published for the forwarding or project-logistics businesses. Treat any brokerage commission figure encountered in a recruiting conversation as unverifiable against public sources.
Equity — RSUs, PSUs, Options & ESPP
Two live plans and one legacy stub. The 2022 Equity Incentive Plan carries restricted stock units, performance share units and options for a deliberately narrow population of about 11 percent of employees; the amended and restated 1997 employee stock purchase plan is the broad instrument and reaches 36 percent of eligible employees.
- The 2022 plan was approved with 4,261,884 shares in 2022 and topped up with a further 4,000,000 in 2025, for 8,261,884 authorised in total.
- Subtracting the 4,976,254 shares still available leaves 3,285,630 shares, or 39.8 percent, notionally encumbered. That is an illustration only: forfeiture and cancellation recycling means the accounting utilisation differs.
- At the $143.66 reference price the remaining capacity has a gross market value of about $714.9 million and the notionally used portion about $472.0 million. Neither figure is a company expense.
- The 3.5 million ESPP shares registered in 2026 carry a gross market-value illustration of about $502.8 million, which again is capacity rather than cost. The actual 2025 company cost of the ESPP discount was $2.961 million.
- Grant-date fair values moved sharply between years: 2025 restricted stock units were struck at a weighted-average $91.96 and February 2026 awards at $197.73, so a constant share count is worth more than twice as much in the later cohort.
2022 Equity Incentive Plan capacity at 31 December 2025
Vesting — common reported employee schedule
There is no cliff on the disclosed executive restricted stock units and no evidence of a one-year cliff elsewhere; awards vest ratably across three years. Performance share units do not vest ratably at all, they settle once at the end of the three-year measurement period, which is why a departure in year two forfeits the entire performance component. The 2022 to 2024 earnings-per-share tranche settled at zero, so the downside is real rather than theoretical.
Eligibility by hierarchy level
- About 11 percent of employees receive company-granted equity. C.H. Robinson does not publish a minimum band, a grant matrix or a typical non-executive award size, so the CHR-03 to CHR-12 grant ranges in this report are scenario estimates rather than policy.
- Employee stock purchase plan access is far broader than grant eligibility and the two should never be conflated. Participation was 36 percent of eligible employees, and 176,568 shares were purchased in 2025 at an aggregate employee cost of $16.782 million.
- The restated 1997 plan cut the service requirement from a longer period to 30 days, which materially widens access for a workforce with 19 percent annual turnover.
- Local law, tax rules and plan administration can exclude employees in particular countries even when the global benefits page lists the plan, so ESPP availability should be confirmed for the specific employing entity.
- CHR-01 and CHR-02 show no evidence of any discretionary grant. The first band where a recurring award becomes plausible is CHR-06 on the technical path and CHR-09 on the management path.
Indicative annual grant value by band — Eden Prairie
| Band | Annual value (USD) | Median | Shares at $143.66 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHR03 | $600 – $1K | $800 | ~4–7 |
| CHR04 | $1K – $2K | $2K | ~9–15 |
| CHR05 | $6K – $10K | $8K | ~43–72 |
| CHR06 | $22K – $37K | $29K | ~152–254 |
| CHR07 | $3K – $5K | $4K | ~22–37 |
| CHR08 | $9K – $16K | $13K | ~65–109 |
| CHR09 | $38K – $63K | $50K | ~261–435 |
| CHR10 | $75K – $125K | $100K | ~522–870 |
| CHR11 | $144K – $240K | $192K | ~1,001–1,668 |
| CHR12 | $287K – $479K | $383K | ~2,001–3,335 |
Annualized planning value (±25%), not the face value of every new-hire grant. Share equivalents use the $143.66 reference price at 25 August 2026, 21:35 UTC and ignore plan valuation rules and PSU performance. Highlighted rows are disclosed grant-date stock awards.
Named executive target equity
| Executive | Target | Units / structure |
|---|---|---|
David P. Bozeman President and Chief Executive Officer | $6,984,383 grant-date fair value | 43,310 target performance share units and 28,880 restricted stock units; 73 percent of target total pay is equity. |
Arun D. Rajan Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer | $4,191,211 grant-date fair value | 25,990 target performance share units and 17,330 restricted stock units, the second largest 2025 grant. |
Damon J. Lee Chief Financial Officer | $1,862,438 grant-date fair value | 11,550 target performance share units and 7,700 restricted stock units. |
Michael J. Short President, Global Forwarding | $1,862,438 grant-date fair value | 11,550 target performance share units and 7,700 restricted stock units, matching the chief financial officer. |
Dorothy G. Capers Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | $1,508,185 grant-date fair value | 10,113 target performance share units and 6,742 restricted stock units; her reported 2025 stock awards of $2,497,207 also include a new-hire component. |
Executive Compensation
Five named executives are disclosed for 2025. Target pay is unusually equity-heavy for a logistics company: 73 percent for the chief executive and an average 64 percent for the rest, delivered as 60 percent performance share units and 40 percent restricted stock units.
Reading the package
Salary is 10.0 percent of the reported chief executive total, stock awards 63.2 percent, the annual incentive 26.1 percent and other compensation 0.7 percent. No discretionary bonus was paid. The gap between grant-date accounting value and market outcome is wide here: the SEC pay-versus-performance measure of compensation actually paid for 2025 was about $25,032,000, more than double the table total, because it marks outstanding equity to market. Neither number is cash received.
On this selected set C.H. Robinson reported the highest 2025 chief executive total, about 15 percent above Expeditors and 46 percent above RXO. The pay ratios tell a different story: C.H. Robinson's 178 to 1 sits close to GXO's 179 to 1 but well above J.B. Hunt's 118 to 1 and RXO's 127 to 1, which reflects workforce mix as much as executive pay. Comparability is imperfect because scale, chief-executive tenure, sign-on awards and business mix all differ, and GXO's figure carries leadership-transition effects.
Named Executive Officers & Board
The disclosed leadership team spans brokerage, forwarding, technology, finance, legal and human resources. Insider filings identify several officers beyond the five named executives, including the President of North American Surface Transportation and the Chief HR and ESG Officer.
Dorothy G. Capers joined during 2025, so her figures are not a full-year comparison: her $364,904 salary is part-year, her cash incentive was prorated for time in role, and the $1,085,897 shown here combines a $485,897 incentive payout with a $600,000 disclosed bonus. Her $2,497,207 of stock awards likewise exceeds her $1,508,185 annual grant because it includes a new-hire component. Arun D. Rajan's package is the notable structural feature of the group: as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer he was paid more than the chief financial officer and both business presidents combined on stock awards, which is unusual outside a technology company and reflects the Lean AI programme's position in the company's strategy.
Board compensation framework
| Element | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Annual stock award | $218,750 | Granted at the same value to every disclosed non-employee director for 2025. |
| Independent chair retainer | $150,000 | Additional to the base director retainer. Board chair Jodee A. Kozlak's total 2025 package was $493,750. |
| Audit Committee retainers | $30,000 chair, $12,500 member | The highest committee retainers on the board. |
| Governance and Talent and Compensation retainers | $20,000 chair, $7,500 member | Paid per committee, so directors serving on both collect two member retainers. |
| Technology and Innovation Subcommittee | Per-meeting fees | The only body paid per meeting rather than by retainer; the rate is disclosed in the proxy fee schedule. |
| Director total range | $343,750 to $493,750 | Seven disclosed non-employee directors for 2025, from Michael H. McGarry at the floor to the independent chair at the ceiling. |
Director pay is a governance package rather than an employment band and is excluded from the ladder and the range chart. The structure is unusually flat on equity: every disclosed director received exactly $218,750 of stock, so the entire spread between the lowest and highest paid director comes from cash retainers and committee service. Director grants are typically made around the annual meeting rather than in the February executive grant cycle.
Regional heads and other officers
Officers outside the named-executive group are not disclosed individually in the Summary Compensation Table, but Form 4 filings reveal their equity scale. February 2026 awards were 51,941 shares to the chief executive, 19,005 to the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, 8,328 to the President of Global Forwarding, 6,745 to the President of North American Surface Transportation, 6,551 to the Chief HR and ESG Officer, 5,610 to the chief financial officer and 3,480 to the chief legal officer. That ordering is a usable proxy for internal seniority where the proxy statement is silent.
Insider Trades — SEC Forms 3/4/5
Twenty-one Form 4 transactions between February and June 2026. The pattern is worth reading carefully: the largest share counts are tax withholdings and awards rather than discretionary trades, and the only open-market purchases were a coordinated set of four in February 2026.
| Date | Person | Transaction | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-26 | David P. Bozeman President and Chief Executive Officer | Withholding Shares withheld to satisfy tax on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 11,693 | $180.34 | $2.11M |
| 2026-05-29 | Arun D. Rajan Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer | Award Restricted stock unit acquisition, Form 4 code A; no price is reported on an award. | 8,714 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-17 | Arun D. Rajan Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 9,030 | $176.01 | $1.59M |
| 2026-02-17 | Michael J. Short President, Global Forwarding | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 7,803 | $176.01 | $1.37M |
| 2026-02-17 | Angela K. Freeman Chief HR and ESG Officer | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 6,787 | $176.01 | $1.19M |
| 2026-02-17 | Michael D. Castagnetto President, North American Surface Transportation | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 3,009 | $176.01 | $530K |
| 2026-02-12 | David P. Bozeman President and Chief Executive Officer | Purchase Open-market purchase, Form 4 code P, three days after the February sales. | 1,223 | $163.34 | $200K |
| 2026-02-12 | Damon J. Lee Chief Financial Officer | Purchase Open-market purchase, Form 4 code P. | 620 | $162.52 | $101K |
| 2026-02-12 | Arun D. Rajan Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer | Purchase Open-market purchase, Form 4 code P. | 605 | $167.11 | $101K |
| 2026-02-12 | Michael D. Castagnetto President, North American Surface Transportation | Purchase Open-market purchase, Form 4 code P; four officers bought within the same day. | 594 | $168.24 | $100K |
| 2026-02-09 | Angela K. Freeman Chief HR and ESG Officer | Sale Open-market sale, Form 4 code S, at the highest price in the filing window. | 8,579 | $200.52 | $1.72M |
| 2026-02-09 | Michael J. Short President, Global Forwarding | Sale Open-market sale, Form 4 code S. | 6,368 | $201.30 | $1.28M |
| 2026-02-09 | Angela K. Freeman Chief HR and ESG Officer | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting the same day as the sale, Form 4 code F. | 5,926 | $200.59 | $1.19M |
| 2026-02-09 | Michael J. Short President, Global Forwarding | Withholding Shares withheld on vesting, Form 4 code F. | 3,787 | $200.59 | $760K |
| 2026-02-04 | David P. Bozeman President and Chief Executive Officer | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A; the largest single grant in the window. | 51,941 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Arun D. Rajan Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A. | 19,005 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Michael J. Short President, Global Forwarding | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A. | 8,328 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Michael D. Castagnetto President, North American Surface Transportation | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A. | 6,745 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Angela K. Freeman Chief HR and ESG Officer | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A. | 6,551 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Damon J. Lee Chief Financial Officer | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A. | 5,610 | — | $0 |
| 2026-02-04 | Dorothy G. Capers Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | Award Annual equity award, Form 4 code A, the smallest of the seven February grants. | 3,480 | — | $0 |
Reading guide
Benefits & Perks
Benefits are better evidenced than pay at C.H. Robinson, because the careers site publishes a regional breakdown and the Houston posting lists the United States package in full. What the company never publishes is the money: provider names, employer premium shares, coverage limits and company leave-day counts are absent in every region.
North America
- Retirement — 401(k) with a 6 percent company match. Disclosed in the 2025 Form 10-K. The match rate is the single most valuable United States benefit figure the company publishes and sits above the typical logistics-sector 3 to 4 percent. [official]
- Medical — Three medical plan choices with prescription cover. Dental, vision, life, short-term and long-term disability are offered alongside them. Provider names and the employer premium share are not disclosed. [official]
- Family — Enhanced fertility benefit and paid parental leave. Both appear in the official Houston posting benefit list. The number of paid weeks is not published. [official]
- Savings accounts — Flexible and health savings accounts with an employer contribution. The employer contribution is confirmed as existing but its amount is not disclosed. [official]
- Leave — Flexible Time Off for United States salaried employees. Non-salaried United States employees and Canadian employees are on accrued paid time off instead, so entitlement depends on employee category as well as country. [official]
- Equity — Employee stock purchase plan participation. A 15 percent discount framework with quarterly purchases and deductions up to 15 percent of pay. Participation across the eligible population is 36 percent. [official]
Global programs
- Charitable giving — Matching up to the equivalent of $10,000 for volunteering and giving. Offered in the listed regions rather than universally. This is the largest specific dollar figure C.H. Robinson publishes for any non-executive benefit. [official]
- Hardship — Employee relief fund. A company-supported fund for employees in crisis, referenced in the corporate benefits material without eligibility rules or grant sizes. [official]
- Learning — Digital learning platform with leadership and skill-building programmes. Delivered in person and virtually. No universal certification-reimbursement or tuition policy has been published. [official]
- Flexibility — Hybrid, remote and flexible arrangements by role and location. There is no published global return-to-office mandate or minimum in-office day count; the arrangement follows the role. [official]
- Mobility — Internal job posting and development planning. Named in the 10-K as part of the retention approach, which matters in a workforce with 19 percent total and 11 percent voluntary turnover. [official]
- Support — Employee assistance programmes in multiple markets. Coverage is described as multi-market rather than global, so availability should be confirmed for the specific employing entity. [official]
Benefit fields not publicly quantified
Provider names, employer premium shares, coverage limits, company leave-day counts, sabbatical policy and certification-reimbursement rules are not published in any region. Where a figure here is a statutory minimum, such as the 12 percent Australian superannuation guarantee, the 3 percent UK employer pension floor or 26 weeks of Indian maternity benefit, it is a legal floor and should not be read as a C.H. Robinson enhancement unless the company says so.
Performance Review & Pay Progression
C.H. Robinson discloses that performance conversations happen and discloses almost nothing about how they convert into money. There is no published rating scale, no merit matrix, no promotion increment and no company-wide review month.
Not publicly disclosed
Modeled promotion planning timeline
| Band | Years to next scope | Promotion hike | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHR01 | About 1 year to CHR-02 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR02 | 2–3 years to CHR-03 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR03 | 3 years to CHR-04 or the CHR-07 supervisor path | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR04 | 3 years to CHR-05 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR05 | 3–4 years to CHR-06 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR06 | Terminal IC band; lateral move to CHR-09 or above | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR07 | 3 years to CHR-08 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR08 | 4 years to CHR-09 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR09 | 4 years to CHR-10 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR10 | 4–5 years to CHR-11 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR11 | 5 or more years to CHR-12 | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CHR12 | Promotion into the named-executive tier is not time-based | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
What the company does confirm is the input set: individual, team and enterprise performance all feed the outcome, and customer-facing incentive plans are designed to balance volume against margin. It also confirms structured onboarding, on-the-job training, ongoing performance and development conversations, a digital learning platform and internal job posting. None of that is quantified. The promotion years shown on each band are market-normalised planning ranges, inferred from the experience spreads in public postings rather than from any C.H. Robinson statement.
Pay progression evidence
Two structural features shape progression more than any rating would. First, the CHR-05 senior professional row is anchored above the CHR-08 manager row on base pay, so moving onto the people-leadership path early is a cash decision as well as a scope decision. Second, equity does not follow a smooth curve: it is effectively absent below CHR-03, selective through the middle of the ladder and only becomes a meaningful share of the package around CHR-09, where annualised stock first exceeds the target bonus. A promotion that crosses that threshold is worth far more than one that does not, and the threshold itself is undisclosed.
H-1B / LCA Visa Footprint — United States
C.H. Robinson is a marginal H-1B sponsor by the standards of a company its size: single-digit to low-teens labour condition applications a year, concentrated in product, data and platform engineering rather than in brokerage or forwarding. The wage record is a handful of individual observations, not a distribution.
Dataset summary
| Dataset | Result | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Labour condition applications | 7 in 2026, 12 in 2025, 2 in 2024 and 17 in 2023 | An application is a wage filing, not a hire. One application can support several actions and some are withdrawn after certification. |
| I-129 petitions and outcomes | 4 of 4 in 2026, 9 of 9 in 2025 and 12 of 13 in 2023 | A single denial appears across the whole visible history, in fiscal 2023. |
| Employer mailing location history | 45 approvals and 1 denial since 2017 | Aggregated at the Eden Prairie mailing address rather than the actual worksite, so it overstates concentration at the headquarters. |
| Worksite counts without wage data | 3 in Scotch Plains, 2 each in Plainfield, Lakeville and Bothell | These worksites appear in the petition record but no salary distribution is published for them. |
City-level H-1B wage history
| City | P25 | Median | P75 | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Eden Prairie, MN The only worksite with a genuine quartile spread. Third-party median and range aggregated at the employer mailing location, which also records 45 approvals and 1 denial since 2017. | $108K | $138,000 | $160K | 46 |
Georgetown, TX Highest observed wage in the record and a single public observation, so it should not be read as a Texas benchmark. | $187K | $187,000 | $187K | 1 |
Tampa, FL A senior data engineering observation. One record, quoted as base salary only. | $170K | $170,000 | $170K | 1 |
Kirkland, WA A single public observation in the Seattle metro, where C.H. Robinson competes for engineers against far larger sponsors. | $150K | $150,000 | $150K | 1 |
All-years aggregates. P25/P75 are rounded reconstruction values marked modeled; medians and record counts are the stronger fields.
Selected title / worksite records
| Title | Worksite | Proffered wage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored technology roles at the headquarters | Eden Prairie, Minnesota | $138,000 median, $107,877 to $160,000 quartile range | The only worksite where more than one observation exists. The spread is wide enough to cover both the CHR-04 and CHR-05 bands. |
| Senior data engineering | Tampa, Florida | $170,000 | Sits above the CHR-05 Eden Prairie anchor of $140,000, consistent with a scarce-skill premium rather than a location premium. |
| Sponsored engineering role | Georgetown, Texas | $187,000 | Approaching the CHR-06 lead and principal anchor of $195,000 on base pay alone. |
| Sponsored engineering role | Kirkland, Washington | $150,000 | A Seattle-metro filing, which is notable because C.H. Robinson has no major disclosed office there. |
| Common sponsored title mix | Across all worksites | Not published by title | Enterprise Senior Product Manager, Software Engineer III, Industrial Engineer, Container Platform Engineer, Senior Data Platforms Administrator, Senior Cloud Engineer and Senior Data Scientist. No brokerage, forwarding or customs title appears. |
Reading the data correctly
- Labour condition applications are not headcount. One application can support several actions, certified-withdrawn filings never become hires, and four of the twelve fiscal 2025 applications fall into that category.
- Proffered wages are base guaranteed salary and exclude bonus and equity, so they are not comparable with the total-compensation columns elsewhere on this page.
- Three of the four cities with wage data rest on a single observation. Treat them as individual data points, not as city benchmarks.
- Four further worksites appear with petition counts but no published salary distribution, so the geographic picture is incomplete even within this small sample.
- The employer mailing-location history aggregates approvals to Eden Prairie regardless of where the work is performed, which exaggerates headquarters concentration.
- Sample sizes this small move sharply year to year: the fiscal 2024 average of $162,500 rests on two applications and should not be read as a trend against the fiscal 2025 average of $133,829.
Key Nuances & Insights
About 11 percent of employees receive company-granted stock, while 36 percent of eligible employees buy shares through the purchase plan. A recruiter saying the company offers equity is almost always describing the second number. Ask which one applies before valuing an offer.
Named executives were paid 171 percent of target for 2025 after adjusted operating margin achieved 200.0 percent. The prior year paid 108 percent to the chief executive and 104 percent to the chief financial officer under the previous design, and the payout scale runs down to 25 percent. Anchoring on 171 percent overstates expected variable pay by a wide margin.
The 2022 to 2024 cumulative diluted earnings-per-share tranche settled at zero and other historical tranches paid below target. Since 60 percent of executive equity is performance share units on the same measure, the grant-date fair value quoted in an offer letter carries genuine downside, not a theoretical one.
CHR-05 senior professional is anchored at $140,000 base against $105,000 for the CHR-08 manager row, and CHR-07 supervisor at $72,000 sits below CHR-04 professional at $102,000. Moving from a technical individual-contributor seat into first-line leadership is a pay cut on base at this company unless the band jump is larger than one step.
Annualised stock first exceeds target variable pay at the senior manager and general manager band, where it reaches roughly $50,000 against a $36,250 target bonus. Below that line the package is effectively all cash. That crossover, not the title, is where the compensation model changes shape.
Grant values are set in dollars nationally while base pay follows metro cost, so a Kansas City or Laredo package converges toward the anchor at senior bands even though its base factor stays flat. A Laredo vice president sits at 0.83 of the Eden Prairie base but about 0.90 of total compensation.
Cutting the service requirement to 30 days matters specifically in a workforce with 19 percent total and 11 percent voluntary turnover. It brings a much larger share of new joiners inside the plan within their first quarter, which is where most of that turnover happens.
Second-quarter 2026 personnel expense increased even though average headcount was down 11.6 percent in North American Surface Transportation and 16.6 percent in Global Forwarding. The gap is incentive funding. Fewer people are being paid more, which is the clearest evidence of where the Lean AI programme is landing.
India, Poland and Czechia carry forwarding, shared services, product, analytics and technology work rather than an onshore-offshore split. Reading Bengaluru as a captive delivery centre misprices the commercial and forwarding roles that sit there, and the country factor curve reflects a logistics workforce rather than an IT-services one.
Only the Houston Senior Pricing Analyst range of $70,200 to $111,000 and the Scottsdale Director Vertical range of $127,500 to $295,900 are employer-published. Every other United States band is interpolated between or extrapolated beyond them, and the director range alone spans $168,400.
Arun D. Rajan's $7,067,466 total is roughly double the $3,462,112 paid to the President of Global Forwarding and the $3,832,036 paid to the chief financial officer. Technology and strategy sit above the operating businesses in this pay structure, which is unusual for a freight broker and is worth reading as a statement of direction.
Four officers bought on the open market on the same day at $162.52 to $168.24, three days after two colleagues sold above $200. That sequence is consistent with satisfying share-ownership guidelines rather than expressing a view on the stock, and the nine tax-withholding filings in the same window are not sales at all.
The SEC pay-versus-performance figure for the chief executive was about $25,032,000 against a $11,045,949 Summary Compensation Table total. Neither is cash received. Any comparison against a peer must use the same measure on both sides or it is meaningless.
The Europe Surface Transportation sale closed on 1 February 2025, so pre-2025 European headcount, office counts and salary observations describe a different company. Combined with restructuring and a 5.9 percent fall in personnel expense, it makes 2023 and 2024 comparisons unreliable rather than merely dated.
Research control
Against Expeditors, J.B. Hunt, GXO and RXO, C.H. Robinson reported the highest 2025 chief executive total at $11,045,949 and a 178 to 1 ratio that sits alongside GXO's 179 to 1 but well above J.B. Hunt's 118 to 1 and RXO's 127 to 1. Its $62,176 median employee is a global figure across a workforce that is 73.8 percent North American, so the ratio reflects mix as much as generosity. On employee pay the company positions itself as market-competitive rather than leading, and the one benefit where it visibly leads the sector is the 6 percent United States 401(k) match.
Evidence classification
| Label | Meaning | Examples and permitted use |
|---|---|---|
| official | Company filing, official benefit page, government rule or official job posting | Executive and director pay, plan terms, headcount, turnover, revenue, the two published United States salary ranges, the 401(k) match and every statutory minimum quoted here. |
| reported | Employee-submitted pay, visa wage record or third-party salary record | The CHR-01 to CHR-06 anchor medians, the Glassdoor India title ranges, the SEEK Australia estimates and the H-1B wage observations. |
| modeled | Eden Prairie anchor multiplied by a city calibration factor and the FX snapshot | The CHR-07 to CHR-12 anchors, every non-anchor city cell, all variable-pay targets outside the executive plan and every annualised equity figure below the named-executive tier. |
| npd | Not publicly disclosed | Rating scales, merit matrices, promotion increments, general employee bonus targets, benefit values, provider names and any grade code. |
Explicit “Not publicly disclosed” index
Known gaps and diligence before relying on a cell
- 1The CHR-13 named-executive cohort and the CHR-14 chief executive row are deliberately excluded from the band table. Both are single global figures identical in every city table in the source bundle, so including them would have forced every offshore market's factor toward parity at the top of the ladder and produced results such as an India-based executive on a United States chief-executive base. Their disclosed values are carried in full in the executive section instead.
- 2The source bundle computes total compensation as base plus variable plus annualised equity plus a notional 4 to 10 percent employer benefit load. That load is employer cost rather than pay and has been stripped here; every total on this page is rebuilt from the three pay components and reconciles to their sum.
- 3Geographic factors are interpolated linearly on seniority between the CHR-01 and CHR-12 values, while the underlying research curve is mildly convex for emerging markets. Mid-ladder cells in India, Mexico, Brazil and China can therefore read up to roughly a quarter above the bundle's own tabulation for those bands, and the endpoints are exact.
- 4Thirty of the source bundle's 67 markets are carried here. The omitted markets are almost entirely modeled from country factors with no local observation, so including them would have added coverage without adding evidence.
- 5Indian evidence is thin enough to qualify every Indian figure: several title ranges rest on one to three crowdsourced submissions, and the company publishes no Indian headcount at all.
- 6The 2022 plan utilisation figure of 39.8 percent is a simple authorised-minus-available calculation. It does not adjust for recycled forfeitures, cash settlements or fungible share counting, so it is not an accounting utilisation ratio.
- 7Every market-value illustration on this page depends on the $143.66 reference price of 25 August 2026, including the equity pool values and the mark-to-market on executive grants. February 2026 awards were struck at $197.73, so the reference price is below the most recent grant price.
- 8No frontline hourly population is modelled here. C.H. Robinson's disclosed workforce is professional, operations and commercial, and the company publishes no warehouse or driver wage data of its own.
FX rates used — 1 USD equals, snapshot 2026-08-25
Single-date conversion layer for comparability; it ignores payroll-date FX, tax, purchasing power, benefits valuation and hedging. Compensation intelligence, not legal, tax, investment, immigration or employment advice.
Source register — 25 sources
| S1 | C.H. Robinson 2025 Form 10-K · SEC EDGAR · 31 December 2025. Workforce, turnover, engagement, revenue, compensation philosophy, equity plan balances, ESPP activity and the 401(k) match. |
| S2 | C.H. Robinson 2026 proxy statement · SEC EDGAR · 23 March 2026. 2025 executive and director compensation, incentive design and attainment, RSU and PSU terms, grants, ownership requirements and the CEO pay ratio. |
| S3 | 2026 annual meeting voting results, Form 8-K · SEC EDGAR · 7 May 2026. Shareholder approval of the amended and restated 1997 employee stock purchase plan. |
| S4 | 2026 ESPP registration statement, Form S-8 · SEC EDGAR · August 2026. Registration of 3.5 million additional employee stock purchase plan shares. |
| S5 | C.H. Robinson Q2 2026 Form 10-Q · SEC EDGAR · 30 June 2026. Current-period personnel expense, average headcount and restructuring commentary. |
| S6 | Q2 2026 earnings release · C.H. Robinson Investor Relations · 31 July 2026. Segment headcount movement and business indicators for the second quarter. |
| S7 | Benefits and Wellbeing · C.H. Robinson Careers · August 2026. Regional benefit categories and employee stock purchase plan availability by region. |
| S8 | Senior Pricing Analyst, Houston job posting · C.H. Robinson Careers · August 2026. Official $70,200 to $111,000 base range and the detailed United States benefit list. |
| S9 | Director Vertical, Scottsdale job posting · Indeed mirror of a C.H. Robinson posting · August 2026. Public $127,500 to $295,900 director base range. |
| S10 | India salary observations · Glassdoor India · August 2026. Small-sample title ranges for graduate, operations, software, data and management roles in India. |
| S11 | Australia salary estimates · SEEK · August 2026. Australian title-level estimates, which SEEK explicitly labels as estimates rather than confirmed bands. |
| S12 | India role and benefits posting · LinkedIn Jobs · August 2026. Group Mediclaim, personal accident and term life cover, ESPP, variable pay, flexible work and leave categories. |
| S13 | H-1B employer history · MyVisaJobs · 18 August 2026. Labour condition application and I-129 counts, approval history, proffered salary averages, titles and worksites. |
| S14 | Annual leave entitlements · Australian Fair Work Ombudsman · August 2026. Four weeks of annual leave and ten days of personal or carer's leave for full-time employees. |
| S15 | Superannuation guarantee rates · Australian Taxation Office · 1 July 2025. The 12 percent superannuation guarantee rate applied to Australian packages. |
| S16 | Workplace pension contributions · GOV.UK · August 2026. Minimum 3 percent employer and 8 percent total contribution on qualifying earnings. |
| S17 | India employer compliance handbook · Ministry of Labour and Employment · February 2026. Gratuity and maternity-benefit statutory framework used for the India benefit floors. |
| S18 | Exchange rates · Reserve Bank of Australia · 25 August 2026. Cross-rates for AUD, INR, GBP, EUR, CAD, CNY, HKD, JPY, SGD and NZD. |
| S19 | Euro reference exchange rates · European Central Bank · 25 August 2026. Euro cross-rates for PLN, CZK, DKK and SEK. |
| S20 | Software engineering compensation records · Levels.fyi · August 2026. Public United States technology compensation observations used for the CHR-04 to CHR-06 anchors. |
| S21 | C.H. Robinson insider transactions · SEC Form 4 aggregation · August 2026. Transaction index used to cross-check Form 4 awards, sales, purchases and tax withholdings. |
| S22 | Peer 2026 proxy statements · SEC EDGAR · 2026. 2025 chief executive compensation for Expeditors, J.B. Hunt, GXO Logistics and RXO. |
| S23 | Company office directory · C.H. Robinson · August 2026. Office presence and regional operating footprint used for the market list. |
| S24 | CHRW market price snapshot · Market data · 25 August 2026, 21:35 UTC. The $143.66 reference price used for every mark-to-market illustration. |
| S25 | Historical USD currency table · XE · 24 August 2026. Long-tail mid-market rates for Latin American, North Asian and South East Asian currencies. |
Recent News & Workforce Trend
The compensation story of the last eighteen months is a smaller workforce being paid more per head. Headcount fell through restructuring, a European divestiture and the Lean AI programme, while incentive funding rose to 171 percent of target and the employee purchase plan was widened.
C.H. Robinson publishes no city-level or country-level headcount beyond the North American share, so this trend cannot be broken down by market. Personnel expense fell 5.9 percent across 2025 and then rose in the second quarter of 2026 against a materially smaller base, which is the clearest published signal that pay per head is moving up while the headcount moves down.
The sale removes a European workforce from the comparison base and makes pre-2025 European headcount and salary observations unreliable for benchmarking.
Headcount closed at 11,855 across 37 countries with 761 contingent workers, total turnover of 19 percent and voluntary turnover of 11 percent. Personnel expense fell 5.9 percent over the year.
Seven officers received awards on the same day, from 51,941 shares to the chief executive down to 3,480 to the chief legal officer, confirming February as the executive grant month.
The chief executive, chief financial officer, chief strategy officer and the President of North American Surface Transportation bought between $162.52 and $168.24 within a single day, three days after two colleagues sold above $200.
The 2026 proxy confirms that named executive equity moved to 60 percent performance share units and 40 percent restricted stock units, and that the annual cash incentive became 100 percent financial with a new relative market outgrowth measure. The 2025 payout was 171 percent of target.
An $11,045,949 chief executive total against a $62,176 median employee. Compensation actually paid under the pay-versus-performance measure was about $25,032,000.
The amended and restated 1997 plan cuts the service requirement to 30 days, permits payroll deductions up to 15 percent and retains quarterly purchases at a 15 percent discount framework.
Second-quarter personnel expense increased on higher incentive compensation while average headcount fell 11.6 percent in surface transportation and 16.6 percent in global forwarding.
Seven labour condition applications and four approved petitions recorded for the part-year, against 12 applications and nine approvals for fiscal 2025 at an average base of $133,829.
At $143.66 the 4,976,254 shares remaining in the 2022 plan carry a gross market value of about $714.9 million, while February 2026 awards were struck at a weighted-average $197.73.