General Motors Co Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Blistering 29.5% Per Year During the Past 10 Years (2009-2018). It Appears That GM and Its Board of Directors Were Into Grade Inflation Given How GM Has Actually Underperformed in the Past Decade. Grade Inflation of the Performance of Top Level Executives Results in Annual Pay Raise Inequality Expansion.

Detroit, Michigan is the site of the second Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate televised debate to be held on July 30-31, 2019.  The Under 75 Progressive Wing will be led by the energetic Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Julian Castro.  The Under 75 More Moderate Wing will be led by Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke and Latecomers Michael Bennet and Steven Bullock.

The key issue to Detroit and to Michigan citizens should be the huge and continuing Income Inequality Expansion which is at the core of many critical problems the US faces.

Thus I will be doing research and making posts on the average pay raise per year that the Top-Tier Executives of many large Michigan Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.

The first Michigan Company I am addressing is the General Motors Company.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement and 10-K  filings with the SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows General Motors Co's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the most recent ten years. 

My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and especially Michigan has such massive continuing Income Inequality Expansion ..... it appears to be predominantly about the relative long-term annual pay raise percentages, coupled with the stock price appreciation subsequent to the time the Top-Tier Executives were rewarded in their pay with stock equity compensation.

To fix Income Inequality driven mainly by Company and its Board of Director choices on Percentage Annual Pay Raises, the US Government should step in and pass wisely-designed, simple but effective Fair Pay Raise Income Inequality Narrowing Company tax incentives for rewarding non-executive employees with fair pay increases ..... the carrot ..... and Company tax disincentives for rewarding executive employees with clearly excessively high pay increases ..... the stick.  I am certain ..... it is simple math ..... that this tax proposal would be very effective in substantially reducing the huge income inequality expansion that has occurred for decades in annual percentage pay raises between company executives and the rest of the company employees. 

And the continuing annual net tax revenues raised by the US Government here should be set up in a separate fund to be used only for wise additional income inequality narrowing initiatives.  This fund should be run by an outside group made up entirely of minorities harmed the most by Income Inequality Expansion of the past decades  .....all women, all blacks, all Latinos, all other non-white people, all past and present union members, all LGBTQ, all non-employee contract workers and all middle and lower income people of all ages.

Also, the US Government should require all US Corporate Boards to include at least one worker representative and to exclude any Company Executive.

	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
General Motors	2018	2017		2017	2016		2016	2015		2015	2014		2014	2013
Top-Tier	Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total
Executive	Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp
	$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s
Mary Barra CEO	21,870	21,958		21,958	22,582		22,582	28,589		28,589	16,163		16,163	5,233
Daniel Ammann CFO	8,972	9,258		9,258	10,224		10,224	11,800		11,800	8,489		8,489	5,260
Mark Reuss Pres Global Product & Cadillac	7,356	7,727		7,727	8,413		8,413	10,199		10,199	9,478		N/A	N/A
Alan Batey President North America	5,341	5,975		5,975	6,415		N/A	N/A
Charles Stevens Advisor and Former CFO	6,939	7,101		7,101	7,603		7,603	8,102		8,102	4,895		N/A	N/A
Karl-Thomas Neumann President Europe													5,269	5,808
Daniel Akerson Former CEO													N/A	N/A
Totals	50,478	52,019		52,019	55,237		48,822	58,690		58,690	39,025		29,921	16,301
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-3.0%			-5.8%			-16.8%			50.4%			83.6%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		21.7%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
General Motors	2013	2012		2012	2011		2011	2010		2010	2009		2009	2008
Top-Tier	Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total
Executive	Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp
	$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s
Mary Barra CEO	5,233	4,943		N/A	N/A
Daniel Ammann CFO	5,262	4,790		4,790	3,508		N/A	N/A
Karl-Thomas Neumann President Europe	N/A	N/A
Daniel Akerson Former CEO	9,071	11,103		11,103	7,703		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Stephen Girsky Vice Chairman Corp Strategy	6,390	5,446		5,446	5,310		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Thomas Stephens Chief Technology Officer							8,305	5,624		5,624	2,112		2,112	3,769
David Reilly President Europe							5,375	3,265		N/A	N/A
Christopher Liddell CFO							N/A	N/A
R A Lutz Vice Chairman													2,626	8,562
R G Young CFO													1,627	2,673
F A Henderson CEO													N/A	N/A
G R Wagner CEO													N/A	N/A
Totals	25,956	26,282		21,339	16,521		13,680	8,889		5,624	2,112		4,738	12,331
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-1.2%			29.2%			53.9%			166.3%			-61.6%
3 Year Average Per Year % Change		27.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		37.3%
8 Year Average Per Year % Change		23.8%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		29.5%