Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Cedar Rapids, Iowa-Based Insurance Company United Fire Group Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Very Robust 17.8% Per Year During the Past 10 Years (2009-2018)

After the second Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate held in Detroit where Cory Booker was the standout performer, where several other non-top-tier candidates performed exceptionally well especially Steve Bullock and where most of the top-tier candidates stumbled, I now will turn my attention to the early primary States and start with Iowa.

The key issue to Iowa 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 the larger Iowa Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.

There are 14 Iowa Companies with stock market caps above $1 Bil recently.  The 14th of these Iowa Company I am addressing here is United Fire Group Inc.

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

United Fire Group's Top-Tier Executive Average Pay Raise was a very robust 17.8% per year for the last ten years, the 7th highest of the 14 largest Iowa Companies I have addressed so far.

  1. FGL Holdings +148.2% per year for the past two years
    1. Athene Holding Ltd +116.8% per year for the past three years
    2. Workiva +71.6% per year for the past five years
    3. Winnebago Industries +25.8% per year for the past ten years
    4. American Equity Investment Life +25.0% per year for the past ten years
    5. Casey's General Stores +24.2% per year for the past ten years
    6. United Fire Group +17.8% per year for the last ten years
    7. Principal Financial Group +14.4% per year for the past ten years
    8. Heartland Financial USA +13.8% per year for the past ten years
    9. Meredith Corp +11.6% per year for the past ten years
    10. Heartland Express +10.7% per year for the past ten years
    11. FBL Financial Group +10.4% per year for the past ten years
    12. HNI Corp +9.0% per year for the past ten years
    13. Rockwell Collins +9.0% per year for the past ten years
    The only highly effective US Government law enacted by either party in the past decade 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.  Just given their near-sighted stance on 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. 

    My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Iowa 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-executives 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 ..... the carrot ..... and Company wise tax disincentives ..... 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
    United Fire Group 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
    Randy Ramlo CEO       3,131       2,624       2,624       2,035       2,035       1,832       1,809       1,717       1,717       1,120
    Michael Wilkins COO       1,589       1,464       1,464       1,107       1,107          931          917          885          885          641
    Dawn Jaffray CFO       1,246       1,116       1,116          839  N/A   N/A   N/A   N/A     
    Barry Ernst Chief Investment Officer       1,162          994          994          724          724          653          604          586          586          492
    Neal Scharmer General Counsel          880          900          900          670          670          585          500          467          467          392
    Dianne Lyons Former CFO  N/A   N/A 
                   
     Totals        8,008       7,098       7,098       5,375       4,536       4,001       3,830       3,655       3,655       2,645
    Annual % Change vs Prior Year 12.8% 32.1% 13.4% 4.8% 38.2%
     5 Year Average Per Year % Change 20.2%
    FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
    Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
    United Fire Group 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
    Randy Ramlo CEO       1,120          620          620          868          868          583          583          423          423          635
    Michael Wilkins COO          641          385          385          503          503          400          400          304          304          426
    Dawn Jaffray CFO
    Barry Ernst Chief Investment Officer          492          325          325          415          425          341          341          276          276          395
    Neal Scharmer General Counsel          392          241          241          300          300          244          244          185          186          257
    Dianne Lyons Former CFO          584          350          350          468          468          380          380          286          286          400
     Totals        3,229       1,921       1,921       2,554       2,564       1,948       1,948       1,474       1,475       2,113
    Annual % Change vs Prior Year 68.1% -24.8% 31.6% 32.2% -30.2%
    5 Year Average Per Year % Change 15.4%
    10 Year Average Per Year % Change 17.8%




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