Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Las Vegas, Nevada Hotel and Casino Company Pinnacle Entertainment Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Blistering 30.0% Per Year During the Nine Years (2009-2017) Before Its Acquisition in 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 I already have finished Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Companies so now I have moved on to Nevada Companies.

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

The 9th Nevada Company I am addressing here is Pinnacle Entertainment Inc, which was acquired in 2018 and has filed Top-Tier Executive Compensation information with the SEC for the previous nine years from 2009 to 2017.  

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement and 10-12B filings with the SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Pinnacle Entertainment Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the nine years from 2009 to 2017. 

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a blistering 30.0% per year for these nine years, which is the third highest of the nine large Nevada Companies that I have addressed so far.

  1. Eldorado Resorts +58.5% per year for the past six years
  2. Caesars Entertainment +38.8% per year for the past five years
  3. Pinnacle Entertainment +30.0% per year for nine years
  4. Las Vegas Sands +24.7% per year for the past ten years
  5. MGM Resorts +18.0% per year for the past ten years
  6. Wynn Resorts +17.3% per year for the past five years
  7. Tropicana Entertainment +16.4% per year for five yeats
  8. Red Rock Resorts +12.3% per year for the past six years
  9. Boyd Gaming +10.6% 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 Nevada 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
Pinnacle Entertainment  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
Anthony Sanfilippo Chair and CEO  N/A   N/A      10,070       7,285       7,285       5,653       5,653       7,845       7,845       6,669
Carlos Ruisanchez President and CFO  N/A   N/A        4,841       3,462       3,462       2,769       2,769       4,280       4,280       3,322
Virginia Shanks Chief Marketing Officer  N/A   N/A        3,698       2,662       2,662       2,048       2,048       3,235       3,235       2,572
Neil Walkoff EVP Operations  N/A   N/A        2,632       1,843       1,843       1,514       1,514       2,585  N/A   N/A 
Troy Stremming EVP Govt Relations  N/A   N/A        1,758       1,410  N/A   N/A         
John Godfrey General Counsel       1,521       2,591       2,591       2,123
Michelle Shriver EVP Operations  N/A   N/A 
               
 Totals              -               -       22,999     16,662     15,252     11,984     13,505     20,536     17,951     14,686
Annual % Change vs Prior Year  N/A  38.0% 27.3% -34.2% 22.2%
 4 Year Average Per Year % Change 13.3%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
Pinnacle Entertainment  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
Anthony Sanfilippo Chair and CEO       6,669       3,381       3,381       1,685  N/A   N/A 
Carlos Ruisanchez President and CFO       3,322       1,361       1,361       3,031       3,031       1,438       1,438          782  N/A   N/A 
Virginia Shanks Chief Marketing Officer       2,572       1,255       1,255       1,173  N/A   N/A 
Neil Walkoff EVP Operations
Troy Stremming EVP Govt Relations            
John Godfrey General Counsel       2,123       1,213       1,213       1,462       1,462       1,412       1,412          784          784       1,326
Stephen Capp Former CFO  N/A   N/A        1,881          957          957       1,538
Alain Uboldi Former EVP       1,885          829          829       1,415
 Totals      14,686       7,210       7,210       7,351       4,493       2,850       6,616       3,352       2,570       4,279
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 103.7% -1.9% 57.6% 97.4% -39.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 43.4%
9 Year Average Per Year % Change 30.0%



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