PhillyInc

Part of Charming Shoppes Inc.'s $8.3 million pay package last year for its chief executive, Dorrit J. Bern, was $38,602 "for our incremental cost of use of the corporate aircraft for commuting purposes," the Bensalem-based retailer said in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. That's not bus tokens. The company also reported that it spent $72,000 for Bern's "rent-free use of an apartment in Philadelphia." The 57-year-old Bern lives in the Chicago area. Charming's director of investor relations, Gayle Coolick, explains that when Bern was recruited in 1995, she "didn't want to relocate because she didn't want to uproot her young children." So Charming Shoppes agreed to the commuting expense because, Coolick said, it "badly" wanted to recruit her. - Jonathan Berr