Houston, Texas-Based Marathon Oil Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Blistering 23.3% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (2009-2018). When the Clear Industry Leader Exxon Mobil 's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was 1.2% Per Year Over the Same Ten-Year Period, Then It Appears That Marathon Oil Has a Huge Amount of Grade Inflation in Its 23.3% Per Year Number.

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 22nd Texas Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is Marathon Oil Corp.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart below shows Marathon Oil's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the past 10 years.
  
Marathon Oil's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a blistering 23.3% per year for the past ten years, which is the 4th highest of the 22 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. Diamondback Energy +52.9% per year for the past seven years
4. Marathon Oil +23.3% per year for the past ten years
5. Energy Transfer Companies +19.2% per year for the past ten years 
6. Enterprise Products Partners +16.2% per year for the past ten years
7. ConocoPhillips +14.8% per year for the past ten years
8. Pioneer Natural Resources +14.4% per year for the past ten years
9. Halliburton +14.3% per year for the past ten years
10. Occidental Petroleum +14.3% per year for the past ten years
11. Western Gas Partners +13.3% per year for the past ten years
12. The New Baker Hughes, a GE Company +12.2% per year for the past three years  
13. Plains All America Pipeline +10.4% per year for the past ten years
14. Valero Energy Corp +10.1% per year for the past ten years
15. The Old Baker Hughes Inc +9.9% per year for eight years excluding Golden Parachutes Pay
16. Schlumberger Limited +9.6% per year for the past ten years
17. Apache Corp +8.4% per year for the past ten years
18. Noble Energy Inc +6.5% per year for the past ten years
19. Phillips 66 +5.4% per year for the past five years
20. EOG Resources +5.1% per year for the past ten years
21. Exxon Mobil +1.2% per year for the past ten years
22. 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 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
Marathon Oil	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
Tillman CEO	12,211	10,116		10,116	8,620		8,620	11,277		11,277	11,498		N/A	N/A
Little EVP Operations	4,621	3,716		3,716	3,651		3,651	3,918		3,918	3,975		3,975	2,759
Whitehead CFO	N/A	N/A
Wagner EVP Corp Development and Strategy	3,598	2,328		2,328	1,609
Hedgebeth General Counsel	N/A	N/A
Krajicek VP Conventional				1,757	1,347
Kerrigan Former General Counsel				3,598	2,940		2,940	3,413		3,413	5,594		5,594	4,197
Sult Former CFO							2,419	3,809		3,809	3,847		N/A	N/A
Robertson Former VP Resource Plays							2,146	3,275		3,275	3,004		3,004	2,760
Totals	20,430	16,160		21,515	18,167		19,776	25,692		25,692	27,918		12,573	9,716
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	26.4%			18.4%			-23.0%			-8.0%			29.4%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		8.7%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Marathon Oil	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
Tillman CEO	N/A	N/A
Little EVP Operations	N/A	N/A
Kerrigan Former General Counsel	4,197	3,821		3,821	3,118		3,118	1,611
Sult Former CFO	N/A	N/A
Robertson Former VP Resource Plays	N/A	N/A
Cazalot Executive Chairman	23,294	15,621		15,621	31,529		31,529	10,211		10,211	9,030		9,030	9,336
Clark Former CFO	N/A	N/A		4,308	8,019		8,019	3,190		3,190	3,269		3,269	3,375
Campbell VP Public Policy				2,300	3,000
Roberts COO				8,389	9,870		9,870	4,218		4,218	3,563		3,563	3,328
Heminger EVP Downstream							N/A	N/A		6,091	7,032		7,032	5,293
Howard SVP Corp Affairs													2,508	1,869
Totals	27,491	19,442		34,439	55,536		52,536	19,230		23,710	22,894		25,402	23,201
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	41.4%			-38.0%			173.2%			3.6%			9.5%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		37.9%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		23.3%