The Woodlands, Texas-Based Oilfield Equipment and Services Provider Apergy Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was a Completely Off-the-Charts 146.9% Per Year During the Past Two Years (2018 and 2017) Since Its Spinoff From Dover Corp in 2018. But When a Company's Audited Annual Pretax Income in 2018 Decreases By 17% in the Same Year That Its Top-Tier Executives Receive an Annual Total Compensation Increase of 257%, Then This Company and Its Board of Directors Have a Huge Problem With Grade Inflation in Evaluating Top-Tier Executive Performance. Just Saying.

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 am studying large Texas Oil & Gas Companies. 

The 37th Texas Oil & Gas Company I am addressing here is Apergy Corp, which was spun off from Dover Corp in 2018.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows Apergy Corp's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the two years ..... 2018 and 2017 ..... which it disclosed related to its spinoff from Dover Corp in 2018.
  
Apergy's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise was a completely off-the-charts 146.9% per year for these two years, which is the very highest of the 37 large Texas Oil & Gas Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Apergy +146.9% per year for the past two years
2. Cheniere Energy Inc +141.9% per year for the past ten years
3. Kinder Martin +115.8% per year for the past ten years
4. Parsley Energy +72.8% per year for the past six years.
5. Buckeye Partners +60.9% per year for the past ten years
6. Diamondback Energy +52.9% per year for the past seven years
7. Targa Resources +46.9% per year for the past ten years
8. Blackstone Minerals LP +36.1% per year for the past five years
9. Enlink Midstream +35.7% per year for the past seven years
10. Concho Resources +31.2% per year for the past ten years
11. Western Refining +25.8% per year for eight years
12. Marathon Oil +23.3% per year for the past ten years
13. CVR Energy +21.9% per year for the past ten years
14. Energy Transfer Companies +19.2% per year for the past ten years 
15. Andeavor +18.1% per year for nine years
16. FMC Technologies +17.1% per year for seven years
17. Spectra Energy Corp +16.4% per year for seven years
18. Enterprise Products Partners +16.2% per year for the past ten years
19. ConocoPhillips +14.8% per year for the past ten years
20. Pioneer Natural Resources +14.4% per year for the past ten years
21. Halliburton +14.3% per year for the past ten years
22. Occidental Petroleum +14.3% per year for the past ten years
23. Western Gas Partners +13.3% per year for the past ten years
24. National Oilwell Varco+13.1% per year for the past ten years
25. The New Baker Hughes, a GE Company +12.2% per year for the past three years  
26. HollyFrontier Corp +11.2% per year for the past ten years.
27. Plains All America Pipeline +10.4% per year for the past ten years
28. Cabot Oil & Gas +10.3% per year for the past ten years
29. Valero Energy Corp +10.1% per year for the past ten years
30. The Old Baker Hughes Inc +9.9% per year for eight years excluding Golden Parachutes Pay
31. Schlumberger Limited +9.6% per year for the past ten years
32. Apache Corp +8.4% per year for the past ten years
33. Noble Energy Inc +6.5% per year for the past ten years
34. Phillips 66 +5.4% per year for the past five years
35. EOG Resources +5.1% per year for the past ten years
36. Exxon Mobil +1.2% per year for the past ten years
37. 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
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Apergy Corp	2018	2017		2017	2016
Top-Tier	Total	Total		Total	Total
Executive	Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp
	$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s
Somasundaram CEO	9,364	2,427		2,427	1,776
Mahoney President	2,159	800
Totals	11,523	3,227		2,427	1,776
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	257.1%			36.7%
2 Year Average Per Year % Change		146.9%