El Paso, Texas-Based Consumer Products Company Helen of Troy Limited's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Very Clean, Substantially Off-the-Charts 84.4% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (Feb 2010-Feb 2019)

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 23rd Texas Non-Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is Helen of Troy Limited.  

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

Helen of Troy's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a very clean, substantially off-the-charts 84.4% per year for the past ten years, which is third highest of the 23 large Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Copart +183.2% per year for the past ten years
2. American Airlines Group +85.9% per year for nine of the past 10 years
3. Helen of Troy +84.4% per year for the past ten years
4. Invitation Homes +78.6% per year for the past two years
5. Tyler Technologies +61.2% per year for the past ten years
6. Vistra Energy +50.6% in the past year 
7. LyondellBasell +45.9% per year for the past eight years
8. Celanese +27.8% per year for the last ten years
9. Yum China Holdings +23.8% per year for the past 5 years
10. D R Horton +20.1% per year for the past ten years
11. Dell Technologies +18.8% per year for seven of the past ten years
12. Sysco +18.7% per year for the past ten years
13. Waste Connections +18.1% per year for the past ten years
14. Southwest Airlines +18.0% per year for the past ten years
15. El Paso Electric Co +15.5% per year for the past ten years
16. Atmos Energy +14.4% per year for the past ten years
17. AT&T +13.8% per year for the past ten years
18. Waste Management +13.2% per year for the past ten years
19. Match Group +12.2% per year for the past six years
20. Texas Instruments +7.2% per year for the past ten years
21. Crown Castle International +6.3% per year for the past ten years
22. Kimberly-Clark +5.8% per year for the past ten years
23. 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
	Feb	Feb			Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb
Helen of Troy	2019	2018			2018	2017		2017	2016		2016	2015		2015	2014
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
Julien Mininberg CEO	6,615	6,807			6,807	6,825		6,825	5,177		5,177	5,683
Brian Grass CFO	1,719	1,631			1,631	1,311		1,311	1,143		1,143	1,204
Vincent Carson Chief Legal Officer	N/A	N/A			1,447	1,390		1,390	1,440		1,440	1,381		1,381	850
Thomas Benson Former COO								N/A	N/A		1,755	1,951		1,951	1,481
Totals	8,334	8,438			9,885	9,526		9,526	7,760		9,515	10,219		3,332	2,331
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-1.2%				3.8%			22.8%			-6.9%			42.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		12.3%
	FYE	FYE			FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Feb	Feb			Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb		Feb	Feb
Helen of Troy	2014	2013			2013	2012		2012	2011		2011	2010		2010	2009
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
Vincent Carson Chief Legal Officer	850	552			552	545		545	512		512	364		364	330
Thomas Benson Former COO	1,481	841			841	807		807	710		710	565		565	467
Gerald Rubin Former CEO	31,332	41,639			41,639	13,017		13,017	11,274		11,274	8,906		8,906	687
Totals	33,663	43,032			43,032	14,369		14,369	12,496		12,496	9,835		9,835	1,484
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-21.8%				199.5%			15.0%			27.1%			562.7%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		156.5%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		84.4%