Midland, Michigan-Based Dow Chemical's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Very Robust 22.4% Per Year During the Past 10 Years (2009-2018)

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 16th Michigan Company I am addressing is Dow Chemical.

Dow Chemical has been a publicly-held Company for many years.  But with the 2017 merger of nearly equals between Dow Chemical and Dupont, both companies became wholly-owned subsidiaries temporarily of the newly-created, publicly-held DowDupont.  Subsequently in 2019, DowDupont spun off the new Dow Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement and 10-12B/A filings with the SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows Dow Chemical's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the most recent ten years.

There were five former Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Top-Tier Executives who were also considered Top-Tier Executives of this new DowDupont Company.  These five Executives had their Total Compensation increase from $55.5 mil in 2016 to $185.1 mil in 2017, or up an astonishing 233% in just one year.

The two former Dupont Top-Tier Executives who were also Top-Tier Executives of the new DowDupont only disclosed their 2017 salary earned in the last four months of 2017.     

Dow Chemical's Top-Tier Executive Average Pay Raise was a very robust 22.4% per year for the last decade and is the eighth highest of the 16 large Michigan Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Credit Acceptance Corp +195.9% per year for the past ten years
2. Sun Communities Inc +72.8% per year for the past ten years
3. Lear Corp's +56.1% per year for the pat ten years
4. Domino's Pizza +31.8% per year for the past ten years
5. General Motors  +29.5% per year for the past ten years
6. Perrigo +28.8% per year for the past ten years
7. BorgWarner +25.3% per year for the past ten years
8. Dow Chemical +22.4% per year for the past ten years
9. CMS Energy +21.9% per year for the past ten years
10. Stryker Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
11. Ford Motor Co +17.0% per year for the past ten years
12. Masco +15.6% per year for the past ten years
13. Ally Financial +15.6% per year for the past four years
14. DTE Energy +10.6% per year for the past ten years
15. Aptiv PLC +10.0% per year for the past eight years
16. Kellogg +7.8% per year for the past 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 Fair Pay Raise Income Inequality Narrowing Company tax incentives ..... the carrot ..... and Company wise tax disincentives ..... the stick.  

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, including those retired.

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

	DowChem	DowChem		DowChem	DowChem		Public Co	Public Co		Public Co	Public Co		Public Co	Public Co
	Sub of	Sub of		Sub of	Sub of		Dow	Dow		Dow	Dow		Dow	Dow
	DowDupont	DowDupont		DowDupont	DowDupont		Chemical	Chemical		Chemical	Chemical		Chemical	Chemical
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
Dow Chemical	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
Andrew Liveris Former CEO	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		22,963	22,154		22,154	26,698		26,698	20,453
Howard Ungerleider President and CFO	11,995	29,790		29,790	8,724		8,724	7,778		7,778	9,498		N/A	N/A
James Fitterling CEO	8,471	32,305		32,305	10,095		10,095	7,769		7,769	9,426		9,426	6,394
Joe Harlan Vice Chair&Chief Commercial Off	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		6,718	7,229		7,229	6,536		6,536	6,540
Charles Kalil Former General Counsel	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		7,032	7,011		7,011	9,112		9,112	6,734
A.N. Sreeram Chief Technology Officer	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Amy Wilson General Counsel	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Peter Holicki SV Manufacturing&Engineering	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
William Weideman Former CFO and EVP													8,934	6,691
Totals	20,466	62,095		62,095	18,819		55,532	51,941		51,941	61,270		60,706	46,812
Annual % Change vs Prior Year		-67.0%			230.0%			6.9%			-15.2%			29.7%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
Dow Chemical	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
Andrew Liveris Chairman and CEO	20,453	22,990		22,990	19,275		19,275	21,377		21,377	18,485		18,280	15,705
Joe Harlan Vice Chair&Chief Commercial Off	6,540	4,929		N/A	N/A
Charles Kalil EVP and General Counsel	6,734	8,069		8,069	7,179		7,179	8,762		8,762	7,307		N/A	N/A
William Weideman Former CFO and EVP	6,691	8,528		8,528	7,356		7,356	5,410		5,410	1,970		N/A	N/A
James Fitterling CEO	6,394	7,993		N/A	N/A
Geoffery Merszei EVP Former CFO							6,740	7,776		7,776	3,742		3,742	6,944
Heinz Haller EVP										7,396	7,193		7,193	5,495
William Banholzer EVP										8,136	6,570		6,570	4,376
Totals	46,812	52,509		39,587	33,810		40,550	43,325		58,857	45,267		35,785	32,520
Annual % Change vs Prior Year		-10.8%			17.1%			-6.4%			30.0%			10.0%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		22.4%