Marysville, Ohio-Based Scotts Miracle-Gro's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 21.5% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (FYEs September 2009-2018)

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 and give him 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 a Cost rather than as a Person, 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 10th Ohio Company I am addressing here is Scotts Miracle-Gro.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Scotts Miracle-Gro's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.
  
Scotts Miracle-Gro's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 21.5% per year during the past ten years, which is the 4th highest of the 10 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. RPM International +21.8% per year for the past ten years
4. Scotts Miracle-Gro +21.5% per year for the past ten years
5. Cintas Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
6. Nordson Corp +15.3% per year for the past ten years
7. Eaton Corp plc +12.7% per year for the past ten years
8. Parker-Hannifin +12.0% per year for the past ten years
9. J. M. Smucker +8.8% per year for the past ten years
10. 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. 

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
	Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept
Scotts Miracle-Gro	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
Hagedorn CEO	5,157	22,073		22,073	8,502		8,502	7,647		7,647	8,976		8,976	6,279
Coleman CFO	1,667	6,558		6,558	2,182		2,182	1,808		1,808	1,187		1,187	1,626
Lukemire President COO	2,171	8,010		8,010	3,062		3,062	3,653		3,653	1,381
Stump EVP Human Resources	1,255	3,608		3,608	1,963		1,963	1,220		1,220	1,378		1,378	1,134
Smith EVP General Counsel	1,079	3,228		3,228	1,476		1,476	1,219
Sanders Former President COO										N/A	N/A		3,812	3,150
Hilsheimer Former CFO													N/A	N/A
Totals	11,329	43,477		43,477	17,185		17,185	15,547		14,328	12,922		15,353	12,189
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-73.9%			153.0%			10.5%			10.9%			26.0%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		25.3%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept
Scotts Miracle-Gro	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
Hagedorn CEO	6,279	5,484		5,484	4,210		4,210	6,047		6,047	6,734		6,734	4,748
Coleman CFO	N/A	N/A
Stump EVP Human Resources	1,134	1,850		1,850	700
Smith EVP General Counsel
Sanders Former President COO	3,150	3,277		3,277	1,770		1,770	1,673		1,673	2,489		2,489	1,591
Hilsheimer Former CFO	N/A	N/A
Brockman Former General Counsel	N/A	N/A		2,067	819
Evans Former CFO	N/A	N/A		2,628	1,241		1,241	1,649		1,649	1,643		1,643	1,178
Baker Former President COO							N/A	N/A		4,625	6,070
Lopez EVP International										1,527	2,551		2,551	1,033
Totals	10,563	10,611		15,306	8,740		7,221	9,369		15,521	19,487		13,417	8,550
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-0.5%			75.1%			-22.9%			-20.4%			56.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		17.7%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		21.5%