Akron, Ohio-Based Jewelry Retailer Signet Jewelers Limited's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Messy But Blistering 24.4% Per Year During the Past Ten Years (FYEs Jan 2010-Jan 2019)

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 pretty well 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, which is being driven now all over Iowa.  With this acquisition, Pete is showing his confidence in very effectively dealing with the media on a constant basis.  This move should eventually propel him into 3rd place in Iowa behind Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden and give Pete 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 role.

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 Costs rather than as People, 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 65th Ohio Company I am addressing here is Signet Jewelers Ltd.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Signet Jewelers Ltd's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the past ten years.
   
Signet Jewelers Ltd's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a messy but blistering 24.4% per year during the most recent ten years, which is the 9th highest of the 65 large Ohio-related Companies I have addressed so far.

1. TransDigm Group +243.1% per year for the past ten years
2. Milacron Holdings +111.0% per year for the past four years
3. Worldpay +49.0% per year for the past seven years
4. Installed Building Products +34.9% per year for past six years
5. General Motors +29.5% per year for the past ten years
6. Diebold Nixdorf +27.2% per year for the past ten years
7. AK Steel +26.8% per year for the past ten years
8. Advanced Draining Systems +25.7% per year for the past five years
9. Signet Jewelers +24.4% per year for the past ten years
10. Wendy's +24.2% per year for the past ten years
11. Welltower +24.0% per year for the past ten years
12. State Auto Financial +23.5% per year for the past ten years
13. Greif Inc +23.5% per year for the past ten years
14. Cardinal Health +23.3% per year for the past ten years
15. Timken Company +23.3% per year for the past ten years
16. Worthington Industries +23.0% per year for the past ten years
17. Cedar Fair L.P. +22.5% per year for the past ten years
18. Cooper Tire & Rubber +22.4% per year for the past ten years
19. MPLX LP +22.4% per year for the past five years
20. RPM International +21.8% per year for the past ten years
21. Scotts Miracle-Gro +21.5% per year for the past ten years
22. Cintas Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
23. Andeavor Logistics LP +20.6% per year for the past seven years
24. Teradata +20.2% per year for nine years
25. Cleveland-Cliffs +19.4% per year for the past ten years
26. Multi-Color Corp +19.3% per year for nine years
27. Marathon Petroleum Corp +18.7% per year for the past ten years
28. Designer Brands +18.6% per year for the past ten years
29. Huntington Bancshares +18.4% per year for the past ten years
30. Fifth Third Bancorp +18.0% per year for the past ten years
31. STERIS plc +15.7% per year for the past ten years
32. Nordson Corp +15.3% per year for the past ten years
33. GrafTech International +14.9% per year for the past ten years
34. Materion Corp +14.7% per year for the past ten years
35. American Electric Power +14.5% per year for the past ten years
36. Forest City Realty Trust +13.2% per year for seven years
37. First Financial Bancorp +12.7% per year for the past ten years
38. Eaton Corp plc +12.7% per year for the past ten years
39. Cincinnati Financial +12.3% per year for the past ten years
40. Progressive Corp +12.1% per year for the past ten years
41. Sherwin-Williams +12.0% per year for the past ten years
42. Parker-Hannifin +12.0% per year for the past ten years
43. Owens-Illinois +11.7% per year for the past ten years
44. The Kroger Company +11.2% per year for the past ten years
45. Air Transport Services Group +10.8% per year for the past ten years
46. Abercrombie & Fitch +10.3% per year for the past ten years
47. FirstEnergy +10.2% per year for the past ten years
48. TFS Financial Corp +10.2% per year for nine years
49. KeyCorp +9.8% per year for the past ten years
50. Chemed Corp +9.7% per year for the past ten years
51. E,W. Scripps +9.1 per year for the past ten years
52. PolyOne Corp +9.1% per year for the past ten years
53. J. M. Smucker +8.8% per year for the past ten years
54. CBIZ Inc +8.7% per year for the past ten years
55. Big Lots +8.4% per year for the past ten years
56. Dana Inc +8.4% per year for the past ten years
57. Lancaster Colony +8.0% per year for the pat ten years
58. Lincoln Electric Holdings +7.6% per year for the past ten years
59. American Financial Group +7.6% per year for the next ten years
60. Procter & Gamble +7.4% per year for the past ten years
61. Macy's +6.6% per year for the past ten years
62. Owens Corning +6.3% per year for the past ten years
63. Goodyear Tire & Rubber +5.4% per year for the past ten years
64. Mettler-Toledo +2.1% per year for the past ten years
65. L Brands +2.0% 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 including the year after year after year of annual furtive tax extenders of predominately special interests additional tax loopholes, which both the Democratic and Republican Establishments voted for, but none more income inequality expanding 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 and employee benefits percentage increases 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 and Employee Benefits 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 and employee benefits 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.

The only Democratic Presidential Candidate to have the vision, courage and fairness to now propose a Company luxury tax on excess CEO pay is Bernie Sanders, who seems to always be ahead of the curve on key progressive issues like fair pay.  And then later some progressives eventually follow Bernie's crystal-clear vision lead.

But Bernie missed one key point here which is that US non-executive employees are substantially much more concerned about their own pay than they are about their CEO's pay. 

It is very effective if you were to reward Companies with a tax credit if they give in the aggregate clearly fair pay and employee benefit increases to non-executive employees in a given year.  And if instead they give in the aggregate clearly unfair pay and employee benefit increases to non-executive employees in a given year, these Companies should be assessed a tax penalty for being too cheap in paying their employees.  This carrot and stick approach would work really well.

Also it would be wise to assess the Company a luxury tax penalty for granting in the aggregate to all of its Higher-Paid Executives clearly excessive pay and employee benefit increases in a given year.

The fairest and most effective way to set up this combination Company luxury tax and Company tax credit proposal is to do it comprehensively.

First, in each year, set up five quintiles of equal total dollars of US employees compensation.  The employees to include should be ones that have full year compensation in both the current year and the prior year.

The Company luxury tax would be computed by applying a tax rate to the current year increase in total employee compensation in the applicable quintiles.  For instance, the current year Company luxury tax could be set at say 30% for the highest quintile and at 5% for the second highest quintile.

And the Company tax credit would be computed in the same way.  For instance, the current year Company tax credit could be set at say 20% for the lowest quintile, at 10% for the second lowest quintile and at 5% for the middle quintile. 

The above Fair Pay Raise Tax proposal could also be applied to US Non-Profit Organizations like Hospitals and other Health Care Organizations, which are known for their huge and continuing income inequality expansion due to their discriminating policies on annual pay and employee benefit increases to their non-executive 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
	Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan
Signet Jewelers	2019	2018		2018	2017		2017	2016		2016	2015		2015	2014
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
Drosos CEO	N/A	N/A
Santana CFO	2,238	1,890		1,890	1,870		1,870	2,340		2,340	1,699
Hobbs President	1,918	1,564
Murray Chief Retail Officer				1,562	1,534		1,534	1,896		1,896	1,990
Light Former CEO				N/A	N/A		6,009	7,401		7,401	5,401		5,401	2,383
Hrabak Former COO							1,585	2,139		2,139	2,081		2,081	1,034
Becker Chief HR Officer							1,095	1,602		1,602	1,670
Barnes Former CEO													N/A	N/A
Ristau Former CFO													N/A	N/A
Totals	4,156	3,454		3,452	3,404		12,093	15,378		15,378	12,841		7,482	3,417
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	20.3%			1.4%			-21.4%			19.8%			119.0%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		27.8%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan		Jan	Jan
Signet Jewelers	2014	2013		2013	2012		2012	2011		2011	2010		2010	2009
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
Light Former CEO	2,383	3,770		3,770	3,812		3,812	2,825		2,825	2,689		2,689	1,418
Hrabak Former COO	N/A	N/A
Barnes Former CEO	5,237	5,999		5,999	7,658		N/A	N/A
Ristau Former CFO	1,726	2,266		2,266	2,633		N/A	N/A
Trabucco US COO	1,099	1,397
Anderson UK CEO	1,168	1,679		1,679	1,821		1,821	1,348		1,348	1,695		1,695	1,002
Montalto US COO							2,161	1,669		1,669	1,566		1,566	869
Burman CEO										11,797	5,293		5,293	4,186
Boyd Former CFO										N/A	N/A		2,424	1,521
Totals	11,613	15,111		13,714	15,924		7,794	5,842		17,639	11,243		13,667	8,996
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-23.1%			-13.9%			33.4%			56.9%			51.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		21.0%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		24.4%