Monday, August 26, 2019

Austin, Texas-Based Technology Software Company SolarWinds Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay Raise Was a Completely Off-the-Charts 114.4% Per Year For Seven of the Past Ten Years. SolarWinds Was Taken Private For a Spell and Thus Didn't File Proxy Statements Containing Executive Compensation Information For Three of the Past Ten Years.

The third Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate televised debate will be held in Houston, Texas on September 12 and 13, 2019.  Texas is also the home state of Julian Castro and Beto O'Rourke, who have both gained significant momentum in the past month.

The key issue to Texas 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 Texas Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.  And I'll start with the large Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies. 

The 25th Texas Non-Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is SolarWinds Corp, which has disclosed Top-Tier Executive Compensation information in Company Proxy Statements filed with the SEC in seven of the past ten years due to it going private in 2016. 

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows SolarWinds Corp's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for these seven years.

SolarWinds Corp's Top-Tier Executives Pay Raise was a completely off-the-charts 114.4% per year for these seven years, which is the second highest of the 25 large Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.
  1. Copart +183.2% per year for the past ten years
  2. SolarWinds +114.4% per year for seven of the past ten years
  3. American Airlines Group +85.9% per year for nine of the past ten years
  4. Helen of Troy +84.4% per year for the past ten years
  5. Invitation Homes +78.6% per year for the past two years
  6. Tyler Technologies +61.2% per year for the past ten years
  7. Vistra Energy +50.6% in the past year 
  8. Rackspace Holdings +50.2% per year for seven of the past ten years
  9. LyondellBasell +45.9% per year for the past eight years
  10. Celanese +27.8% per year for the last ten years
  11. Yum China Holdings +23.8% per year for the past 5 years
  12. D R Horton +20.1% per year for the past ten years
  13. Dell Technologies +18.8% per year for seven of the past ten years
  14. Sysco +18.7% per year for the past ten years
  15. Waste Connections +18.1% per year for the past ten years
  16. Southwest Airlines +18.0% per year for the past ten years
  17. El Paso Electric Co +15.5% per year for the past ten years
  18. Atmos Energy +14.4% per year for the past ten years
  19. AT&T +13.8% per year for the past ten years
  20. Waste Management +13.2% per year for the past ten years
  21. Match Group +12.2% per year for the past six years
  22. Texas Instruments +7.2% per year for the past ten years
  23. Crown Castle International +6.3% per year for the past ten years
  24. Kimberly-Clark +5.8% per year for the past ten years
  25. CenterPoint Energy +5.8% per year for the past ten years
There have been many US Government laws enacted in the past two decades that have substantially increased income inequality expansion but the only highly effective US Government law enacted by either party in the past two decades that has substantially reduced income inequality expansion is Obamacare and the political right is continually trying to repeal and replace it and three of the top four Democratic Presidential candidates now leading in the polls are effectively running as their principal issue to do in essence precisely the same thing ..... repeal and replace Obamacare ..... but to do it with either a pure or a version of Medicare For All.  

The pure Medicare For All advocated by both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and which was co-sponsored in a US Senate bill by Kamala Harris is off-the-charts enormously expensive and would take up an enormous amount of wasted time with no positive result since it has no chance of getting passed legislatively.  The US Government CBO hasn't been able to score the cost of a pure version of Medicare For All so far because the proposals have not been nearly specific enough.  If and when they are specific enough, the CBO scoring will make people shake in their boots and wonder just how any Presidential candidate could propose something so fiscally preposterous.  Just given their near-sighted stance on a pure version of Medicare For All, if the Democratic nominee is any of the three of them, it will be extremely difficult for any of them to beat Trump in the general election.  It is that simple.

On the other hand, if Elizabeth Warren got more rational and wisely altered her position some on Medicare For All, she would have a very good chance of beating Trump. 

My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Texas has such massive continuing Income Inequality Expansion ..... it appears to be predominantly about the relative long-term annual pay raise percentages for the executives of a Company vs the many non-executive employees of a Company, coupled with the stock price appreciation subsequent to the time the company 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, 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.

FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
SolarWinds 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
Kevin Thompson CEO       8,712       1,353 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A     10,672       6,292
Kalsu CFO       2,929          649 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A       1,897       3,316
Gardiner EVP Core IT       3,482          886 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A        
Ream Chief Accounting Officer       1,750       3,406
Strelzick EVP President Sales       4,587       2,450
Hibberd EVP President Business Operations  N/A   N/A 
 Totals      15,123       2,888     18,906     15,464
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 423.6% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 22.3%
2 Year Average Per Year % Change 223.0%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
SolarWinds Inc 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
Kevin Thompson CEO       6,292       6,153       6,153       3,107       3,107       2,042       2,042       2,468       2,468          477
Kalsu CFO       3,316          957          957          582          582          532          532          678          678          318
Gardiner EVP Core IT    
Ream Chief Accounting Officer  N/A   N/A     
Strelzick EVP President Sales       2,450       2,979       2,979       1,751       1,751       1,156       1,156          695          695          583
Hibberd EVP President Business Operations  N/A   N/A        2,559       1,093       1,093       1,102       1,102          998          998          313
Berry Former CFO  N/A   N/A        2,464       1,220  N/A   N/A     
Bennett Former Executive Chairman  N/A   N/A        2,454          636
Selvaggi Former SVP Marketing  N/A   N/A           817          298
Van Zant SVP Chief Product Strategist          867          314
 Totals      12,058     10,089     15,112       7,753       6,533       4,832       4,832       4,839       8,977       2,939
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 19.5% 94.9% 35.2% -0.1% 205.4%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 71.0%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 114.4%



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