Dublin, Ohio-Based Drug Wholesaler Cardinal Health's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 23.3% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (FYEs June 2010-2019)

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, which is being driven now all over Iowa.  With this acquisition, Pete is showing his confidence in very effectively dealing with the media 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 role.

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 27th Ohio Company I am addressing here is Cardinal Health.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Cardinal Health's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.
  
Cardinal Health's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 23.3% per year during the past ten years, which ties for the 5th highest of the 27 large Ohio-related Companies I have addressed so far.

1. TransDigm Group +243.1% per year for the past ten years
2. Worldpay +49.0% per year for the past seven years
3. General Motors +29.5% per year for the past ten years
4. Welltower +24.0% per year for the past ten years
5. Cardinal Health +23.3% per year for the past ten years
6. Timken Company +23.3% per year for the past ten years
7. MPLX LP +22.4% per year for the past five years
8. RPM International +21.8% per year for the past ten years
9. Scotts Miracle-Gro +21.5% per year for the past ten years
10. Cintas Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
11. Andeavor Logistics LP +20.6% per year for the past seven years
12. Marathon Petroleum Corp +18.7% per year for the past ten years
13. Fifth Third Bancorp +18.0% per year for the past ten years
14. Nordson Corp +15.3% per year for the past ten years
15. American Electric Power +14.5% per year for the past ten years
16. Eaton Corp plc +12.7% per year for the past ten years
17. Cincinnati Financial +12.3% per year for the past ten years
18. Progressive Corp +12.1% per year for the past ten years
19. Sherwin-Williams +12.0% per year for the past ten years
20. Parker-Hannifin +12.0% per year for the past ten years
21. The Kroger Company +11.2% per year for the past ten years
22. FirstEnergy +10.2% per year for the past ten years
23. KeyCorp +9.8% per year for the past ten years
24. J. M. Smucker +8.8% per year for the past ten years
25. Lancaster Colony +8.0% per year for the pat ten years
26. Lincoln Electric Holdings +7.6% per year for the past ten years
27. 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 including the annual furtive tax extenders, 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 and employee benefits percentage increases 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 and Employee Benefits 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 and employee benefits 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
	June	June		June	June		June	June		June	June		June	June
Cardinal Health	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
Kaufmann CEO	15,571	8,424		8,424	3,893		3,893	4,031		4,031	7,159		7,159	4,009
Crawford CEO Pharmaceutical Segment	N/A	N/A
Mayer Chief Legal Officer	N/A	N/A
Gomez Former CFO	3,151	2,361
Giacomin Former CEO Medical Segment	3,869	5,435		5,435	3,574		3,574	3,274		3,274	3,064
Morford Former Chief Legal Officer	N/A	N/A		2,930	2,234		2,234	3,186		3,186	2,306		2,306	2,294
Barrett Executive Chairman&Former CEO				13,112	10,985		10,985	13,661		13,661	13,270		13,270	12,449
Casey Former CEO Medical Segment				N/A	N/A		3,837	3,900		3,900	5,111		5,111	3,460
Henderson Former CFO													3,636	4,391
Totals	22,591	16,220		29,901	20,686		24,523	28,052		28,052	30,910		31,482	26,603
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	39.3%			44.5%			-12.6%			-9.2%			18.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		16.1%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	June	June		June	June		June	June		June	June		June	June
Cardinal Health	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
Kaufmann CEO	4,009	3,668		3,668	3,437		3,437	3,268		3,268	4,716
Morford Former Chief Legal Officer	2,294	2,212		2,212	1,995		1,995	1,240		1,240	2,665
Barrett Executive Chairman&Former CEO	12,449	11,475		11,475	11,210		11,210	10,214		10,214	14,702		14,702	3,764
Casey Former CEO Medical Segment	3,460	3,280		N/A	N/A
Henderson Former CFO	4,391	4,125		4,125	3,977		3,977	3,777		3,777	5,522		5,522	3,922
Lynch Former CEO Medical Segment							3,250	2,905		2,905	4,837
Totals	26,603	24,760		21,480	20,619		23,869	21,404		21,404	32,442		20,224	7,686
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	7.4%			4.2%			11.5%			-34.0%			163.1%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		30.4%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		23.3%