Monday, August 19, 2019

Houston, Texas-Based Distributor/Wholesaler Sysco Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Blistering 22.6% Per Year During 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 five to ten years.  And I'll start with the large Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies. 

The sixth Texas Non-Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is the very well-run Sysco Corp.  

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

Sysco Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a blistering 22.6% per year for the past ten years, which is the very highest of the 6 largest Texas Non-Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.

  1. Sysco +22.6% per year for the past ten years
  2. AT&T +13.8% per year for the past ten years
  3. Waste Management +13.2% per year for the past ten years
  4. Texas Instruments +7.2% per year for the past ten years
  5. Crown Castle International +6.3% per year for the past ten years
  6. Kimberly-Clark +5.8% 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.  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 to beat 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
  June June June June June June June June June June
Sysco Corp 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
Thomas Bene CEO     10,733       8,775       8,775       5,824       5,824       5,412       5,412       3,231       3,231       2,619
William DeLaney Former CEO     15,216     15,100     15,100     14,080     14,080       9,328       9,328       7,815
Joel Grade CFO       3,940       4,770       4,770       4,179       4,179       4,115  N/A   N/A     
Greg Bertrand EVP       4,084       3,390
Russell Libby EVP Admin       3,739       4,019       4,019       3,908       3,908       3,562       3,562       2,433  N/A   N/A 
Wayne Shurts Chief Technology Officer       3,923       4,309       4,309       4,218       4,218       4,058       4,058       2,738       2,738       2,400
Robert Kreidler Former EVP CFO  N/A   N/A        3,566       3,251
Michael Green President Foodservice
Manuel Fernandez Former Executive Chair
 Totals      26,419     25,263     37,089     33,229     33,229     31,227     27,112     17,730     18,863     16,085
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 4.6% 11.6% 6.4% 52.9% 17.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 18.6%  
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
June June June June June June June June June June
Sysco Corp 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
William DeLaney Former CEO       7,815     10,886     10,886       8,422       8,422       5,726       5,726       5,934       5,934       3,802
Wayne Shurts Chief Technology Officer  N/A   N/A   N/A   N/A     
Robert Kreidler Former EVP CFO       3,251       4,194       4,194       2,541       2,541       2,627       2,627       2,643  N/A   N/A 
Michael Green President Foodservice       3,911       3,048       3,048       4,163       4,163       2,696       2,696       3,500       3,500       1,402
Manuel Fernandez Former Executive Chair  N/A   N/A   N/A   N/A     
James Hope Former EVP               1,990       2,803       2,803       2,108  N/A   N/A 
Larry Pulliam EVP Group President       4,557       3,131       3,131       4,312       4,312       1,709
Stephen Smith Former EVP       3,392       1,291
Kenneth Spitler Former President       9,987       4,470
 Totals      14,977     18,128     20,118     17,929     22,486     16,288     14,180     16,389     27,125     12,674
Annual % Change vs Prior Year -17.4% 12.2% 38.1% -13.5% 114.0%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 26.7%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 22.6%