El Paso, Texas-Based Western Refining Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was an Exceptionally Clean, Blistering 25.8% Per Year During the Eight Years (2009-2016) Before It Was Acquired By San Antonio, Texas-Based Tesoro (Later Named Andeavor)

The third Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate televised debate will be held in Houston, Texas on September 12, 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 large Texas Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.  I completed my study of large Texas Non-Oil &  Companies and now I have started studying large Texas Oil & Gas Companies. 

The 34th Texas Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is Western Refining Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement and 10-K/A filings with the US SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows Western Refining Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the eight years before it was acquired by Tesoro in 2017.
  
Western Refining Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was an exceptionally clean, blistering 25.8% per year for these eight years, which is the 9th highest of the 34 large Texas Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Cheniere Energy Inc +141.9% per year for the past ten years
2. Kinder Martin +115.8% per year for the past ten years
3. Parsley Energy +72.8% per year for the past six years.
4. Buckeye Partners +60.9% per year for the past ten years
5. Diamondback Energy +52.9% per year for the past seven years
6. Targa Resources +46.9% per year for the past ten years
7. Enlink Midstream +35.7% per year for the past seven years
8. Concho Resources +31.2% per year for the past ten years
9. Western Refining +25.8% per year for eight years
10. Marathon Oil +23.3% per year for the past ten years
11. CVR Energy +21.9% per year for the past ten years
12. Energy Transfer Companies +19.2% per year for the past ten years 
13. FMC Technologies +17.1% per year for seven years
14. Spectra Energy Corp +16.4% per year for seven years
15. Enterprise Products Partners +16.2% per year for the past ten years
16. ConocoPhillips +14.8% per year for the past ten years
17. Pioneer Natural Resources +14.4% per year for the past ten years
18. Halliburton +14.3% per year for the past ten years
19. Occidental Petroleum +14.3% per year for the past ten years
20. Western Gas Partners +13.3% per year for the past ten years
21. National Oilwell Varco+13.1% per year for the past ten years
22. The New Baker Hughes, a GE Company +12.2% per year for the past three years  
23. HollyFrontier Corp +11.2% per year for the past ten years.
24. Plains All America Pipeline +10.4% per year for the past ten years
25. Cabot Oil & Gas +10.3% per year for the past ten years
26. Valero Energy Corp +10.1% per year for the past ten years
27. The Old Baker Hughes Inc +9.9% per year for eight years excluding Golden Parachutes Pay
28. Schlumberger Limited +9.6% per year for the past ten years
29. Apache Corp +8.4% per year for the past ten years
30. Noble Energy Inc +6.5% per year for the past ten years
31. Phillips 66 +5.4% per year for the past five years
32. EOG Resources +5.1% per year for the past ten years
33. Exxon Mobil +1.2% per year for the past ten years
34. Anadarko Petroleum +1.1% 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 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.

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
Western Refining	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
Paul Foster Executive Chairman	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Jeff Stevens CEO	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		6,875	6,442		6,442	7,339		7,339	3,648
Karen Davis CFO	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Gary Dalke Former CFO	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		2,976	2,185		2,185	2,685		2,685	2,152
Lowry Barfield General Counsel	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		2,902	2,129		2,129	2,568		2,568	1,952
Jeffrey Beyersdorfer SVP Treasurer&InvRel	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		2,153	1,410		1,410	1,870		1,870	1,550
David Lamp President and COO	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Mark Smith EVP Operations	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		3,913	2,723		2,723	3,415		3,415	2,747
Totals	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		18,819	14,889		14,889	17,877		17,877	12,049
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A		26.4%			-16.7%			48.4%
3 Year Average Per Year % Change							19.4%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Western Refining	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
Jeff Stevens CEO	3,648	2,515		2,515	1,801		1,801	765		765	717		717	1,507
Gary Dalke Former CFO	2,152	1,463		1,463	1,891		1,891	527		527	497		497	613
Lowry Barfield General Counsel	1,952	1,594		1,594	1,043		1,043	2,118		2,118	446		446	758
Jeffrey Beyersdorfer SVP Treasurer&InvRel	1,550	1,103		1,103	1,317		1,317	740
Mark Smith EVP Operations	2,747	2,162		2,162	1,423		1,423	2,306		2,306	597		597	866
Paul Foster Executive Chairman										511	920		920	1,938
William Jewell Chief Accounting Officer										1,416	297		297	338
Totals	12,049	8,837		8,837	7,475		7,475	6,456		7,643	3,474		3,474	6,020
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	36.3%			18.2%			15.8%			120.0%			-42.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		29.6%
8 Year Average Per Year % Change		25.8%