Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Dallas, Texas-Based Match Group Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Robust 12.2% Per Year During the Past Six Years (2013-2018) That There Were Top-Tier Executive Compensation Disclosures in SEC Filings

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 11th Texas Non-Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is Match Group Inc.  

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement and Prospectus filings with the SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Match Group's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the past six years (2013-2018).   Top-Tier Executive Compensation information was only available for these six years. 

Match Group's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a robust 12.2
% per year for these six years, which is the 8th highest of the 11 very large Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.
  1. American Airlines Group +85.9% per year for nine of the past 10 years
  2. LyondellBasell +45.9 per year for the past eight years
  3. Sysco +18.7% per year for the past ten years
  4. Waste Connections +18.1% per year for the past ten years
  5. Southwest Airlines +18.0% per year for the past ten years
  6. AT&T +13.8% per year for the past ten years
  7. Waste Management +13.2% per year for the past ten years
  8. Match Group +12.2% per year for the past six years
  9. Texas Instruments +7.2% per year for the past ten years
  10. Crown Castle International +6.3% per year for the past ten years
  11. Kimberly-Clark +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
Match 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
Amanda Ginsberg CEO       2,508     11,681  N/A   N/A 
Gary Swindler CFO       3,657       5,616       5,616       1,737  N/A   N/A     
Sharmistha President  N/A   N/A 
Jared Sine Chief Legal Officer       1,858       2,188  N/A   N/A 
Gregory Blatt CEO       4,008       4,008       4,008     20,198     20,198       8,693       8,693     11,716
Amarnath Thombre Chief Strategy Officer       5,333       1,729       1,729       2,637       2,637          665          665       1,415
Sam Yagan Former CEO       4,291       4,820       4,820       1,608
Jeffrey Dawson CFO Dating       1,565          816          816          459
 Totals        8,023     19,485     14,957       7,474       5,737     22,835     28,691     14,994     14,994     15,198
Annual % Change vs Prior Year -58.8% 100.1% -74.9% 91.3% -1.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 11.3%
FYE FYE
Dec Dec
Match Group 2013 2012
Top-Tier Total Total
Executive Comp Comp
$ 000s $ 000s
Gregory Blatt CEO     11,716       4,672    
Amarnath Thombre Chief Strategy Officer  N/A   N/A 
Sam Yagan Former CEO       1,608       6,337
Jeffrey Dawson CFO Dating          459          766
 Totals      13,783     11,775                
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 17.1%
6 Year Average Per Year % Change 12.2%