Thursday, September 26, 2019

Columbus, Ohio-Based Utility Company American Electric Power's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Very Robust 14.5% Per Year During the Past Ten Years

The third Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate was held in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019.  The stickout strong performers in this debate were Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker.  The only one of the Top Four candidates in the polls performing OK in this debate was Elizabeth Warren, with the other Top Three in the polls slipping in performance in this debate, especially two of them Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders.

The most insightful recent move by the Democratic Presidential candidates is Pete Buttigieg's Bus.  With this acquisition, Pete is showing his confidence in very effectively dealing with the press on a constant basis.  This move should eventually propel him into 3rd place in Iowa behind Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden and give Pete a decent shot of eventually reaching the coveted 15% of Iowa's caucus vote.

The fourth Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate will be held on October 15, 2020 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, a Columbus suburb.  It's good to see that the New York Times will be one of the hosts.  The quality and relevance of the questions should improve substantially from what they were in the first three debates where the key economic issues played such a minor part.

The key issue to Ohio citizens should be the huge and continuing Income Inequality Expansion which is at the core of many critical problems the US faces.

While increasing the US federal minimum wage will help here, there is a much broader and critical problem that needs to be solved.  The annual percentage increase in the pay and employee benefits of Company non-executive employees are minuscule in relation to that of Company executive employees and this has been going on for decades.  When Corporate CEOs and CFOs primarily view non-executive employees as Costs rather than as People, this is what happens. And neither political party has had the courage to take on US Corporations here.

Thus I will be doing research and making posts on the average annual pay and employee benefits increase per year that the Top-Tier Executives of large Ohio Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.

The 18th Ohio Company I am addressing here is American Electric Power.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows American Electric Power's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.
  
American Electric Power's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a very robust 14.5% per year during the past ten years, which is the 11th highest of the 18 large Ohio-related Companies I have addressed so far.

  1. TransDigm Group +243.1% per year for the past ten years
  2. General Motors +29.5% per year for the past ten years
  3. Timken Company +23.3% per year for the past ten years
  4. MPLX LP +22.4% per year for the past five years
  5. RPM International +21.8% per year for the past ten years
  6. Scotts Miracle-Gro +21.5% per year for the past ten years
  7. Cintas Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
  8. Andeavor Logistics LP +20.6% per year for the past seven years
  9. Marathon Petroleum Corp +18.7% per year for the past ten years
  10. Nordson Corp +15.3% per year for the past ten years
  11. American Electric Power +14.5% per year for the past ten years
  12. Eaton Corp plc +12.7% per year for the past ten years
  13. Sherwin-Williams +12.0% per year for the past ten years
  14. Parker-Hannifin +12.0% per year for the past ten years
  15. J. M. Smucker +8.8% per year for the past ten years
  16. Lancaster Colony +8.0% per year for the pat ten years
  17. Lincoln Electric Holdings +7.6% per year for the past ten years
  18. Procter & Gamble +7.4% 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 none more so than the Trump Tax Cuts Act.

On the other hand, 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.

My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Ohio 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 Companies which reward non-executive employees with fair pay increases ..... the carrot ..... and Company tax disincentives for Companies which reward 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.

The above Fair Pay Raise Tax proposal could also be applied to US Non-Profit Organizations like Hospitals and other Health Care Organizations, which are known for their huge and continuing income inequality expansion due to their discriminating policies on annual pay and employee benefit increases.  

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.

Further, the US Government should ban Golden Parachutes.

FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
American Electric Power 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
Akins Chairman and CEO        12,202        11,530        11,530        11,473        11,473        11,453        11,453        11,374        11,374        10,613
Tierney CFO           3,667           3,994           3,994           3,842           3,842           3,801           3,801           3,979           3,979           3,521
Feinberg General Counsel           2,741           2,493           2,493           2,633           2,633           2,517           2,517           2,339           2,339           2,279
Barton EVP Utilities           2,410           2,361           2,361           2,348           2,348           2,310           2,310           1,917    
Hillebrand Chief Administrative Officer           2,275           2,227           2,227           2,438           2,438           2,352           2,352           2,151           2,151           2,171
Powers Vice Chairman           4,029           3,762           3,762           4,418           4,418           3,522
Zebula EVP Energy Supply           2,618           1,997
 Totals      23,295     22,605     22,605     22,734     26,763     26,195     28,813     28,175     24,261     22,106
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 3.1% -0.6% 2.2% 2.3% 9.7%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 3.3%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
American Electric Power 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
Akins Chairman and CEO        10,613           7,286           7,286           2,808           2,808           3,459           3,459           1,501           1,501           1,809
Tierney CFO           3,521           3,628           3,628           2,430           2,430           3,806           3,806           1,454           1,454           2,063
Feinberg General Counsel           2,279           1,827    
Hillebrand Chief Administrative Officer  N/A   N/A     
Powers Vice Chairman           3,522           3,997           3,997           2,630           2,630           4,255           4,255           2,486           2,486           2,586
Morris Former CEO           9,187           9,026           9,026           7,539           7,539        10,018
English Former Vice Chairman           2,661           2,929           2,929           2,584           2,584           3,299
Miller Former General Counsel           2,158           1,568
Tomasky Former Pres AEP Transmission  N/A   N/A            2,752           2,806           2,806           2,505
McCellon-Allen President COO SWEPCo           3,175           1,439           1,439           1,784
Koeppel Former CFO       2,398       2,529
 Totals      19,935     16,738     14,911       7,868     21,874     25,043     29,402     19,809     22,207     26,593
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 19.1% 89.5% -12.7% 48.4% -16.5%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 25.6%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 14.5%


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