Since General Motors Has a Huge Presence in Ohio and Also Since There Are Now 2,000 NW Ohio GM Auto Workers Out on Strike, I'll Start My Ohio Top Executives Employee Compensation Review With GM. GM's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay and Benefits Raise Was a Blistering 29.5% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (2009-2018)

The third Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate was held in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019.  The stickout performers in this debate were Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker.  The only one of the Top Four candidates performing OK was Elizabeth Warren, with the other three slipping at least some.

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 pay and benefits raise per year that the Top-Tier Executives of large Ohio Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.  

The first Company I am addressing here is General Motors Company, which is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan but which has a huge presence in Ohio.  There are also many GM suppliers in Ohio.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows General Motors Company's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.
  
GM's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay and Benefits Raise was a blistering 29.5% 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 choose to 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.

	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
General Motors	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
Mary Barra CEO	21,870	21,958		21,958	22,582		22,582	28,589		28,589	16,163		16,163	5,233
Daniel Ammann CFO	8,972	9,258		9,258	10,224		10,224	11,800		11,800	8,489		8,489	5,260
Mark Reuss Pres Global Product & Cadillac	7,356	7,727		7,727	8,413		8,413	10,199		10,199	9,478		N/A	N/A
Alan Batey President North America	5,341	5,975		5,975	6,415		N/A	N/A
Charles Stevens Advisor and Former CFO	6,939	7,101		7,101	7,603		7,603	8,102		8,102	4,895		N/A	N/A
Karl-Thomas Neumann President Europe													5,269	5,808
Daniel Akerson Former CEO													N/A	N/A
Totals	50,478	52,019		52,019	55,237		48,822	58,690		58,690	39,025		29,921	16,301
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-3.0%			-5.8%			-16.8%			50.4%			83.6%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		21.7%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
General Motors	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
Mary Barra CEO	5,233	4,943		N/A	N/A
Daniel Ammann CFO	5,262	4,790		4,790	3,508		N/A	N/A
Karl-Thomas Neumann President Europe	N/A	N/A
Daniel Akerson Former CEO	9,071	11,103		11,103	7,703		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Stephen Girsky Vice Chairman Corp Strategy	6,390	5,446		5,446	5,310		N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
Thomas Stephens Chief Technology Officer							8,305	5,624		5,624	2,112		2,112	3,769
David Reilly President Europe							5,375	3,265		N/A	N/A
Christopher Liddell CFO							N/A	N/A
R A Lutz Vice Chairman													2,626	8,562
R G Young CFO													1,627	2,673
F A Henderson CEO													N/A	N/A
G R Wagner CEO													N/A	N/A
Totals	25,956	26,282		21,339	16,521		13,680	8,889		5,624	2,112		4,738	12,331
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-1.2%			29.2%			53.9%			166.3%			-61.6%
3 Year Average Per Year % Change		27.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		37.3%
8 Year Average Per Year % Change		23.8%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		29.5%