Columbus, Ohio-Based Shoe Retailer Designer Brands Inc, Formerly DSW, Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 23.7% Per Year During the Past Five Years (FYEs Jan 2015-Jan 2019) and a Bit Lower But Still Blistering 18.6% 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 62nd Ohio Company I am addressing here is Designer Brands Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows Designer Brands Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive substantially full years of employment for the past ten years.
   
Designer Brands Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 23.7% per year during the most recent five years and a bit lower but still blistering 18.6% during the most recent ten years , which is the 27th highest of the 62 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. Wendy's +24.2% per year for the past ten years
10. Welltower +24.0% per year for the past ten years
11. State Auto Financial +23.5% per year for the past ten years
12. Greif Inc +23.5% per year for the past ten years
13. Cardinal Health +23.3% per year for the past ten years
14. Timken Company +23.3% per year for the past ten years
15. Worthington Industries +23.0% per year for the past ten years
16. Cedar Fair L.P. +22.5% per year for the past ten years
17. Cooper Tire & Rubber +22.4% per year for the past ten years
18. MPLX LP +22.4% per year for the past five years
19. RPM International +21.8% per year for the past ten years
20. Scotts Miracle-Gro +21.5% per year for the past ten years
21. Cintas Corp +20.7% per year for the past ten years
22. Andeavor Logistics LP +20.6% per year for the past seven years
23. Teradata +20.2% per year for nine years
24. Cleveland-Cliffs +19.4% per year for the past ten years
25. Multi-Color Corp +19.3% per year for nine years
26. Marathon Petroleum Corp +18.7% per year for the past ten years
27. Designer Brands +18.6% per year for the past ten years
28. Huntington Bancshares +18.4% per year for the past ten years
29. Fifth Third Bancorp +18.0% per year for the past ten years
30. STERIS plc +15.7% per year for the past ten years
31. Nordson Corp +15.3% per year for the past ten years
32. GrafTech International +14.9% per year for the past ten years
33. Materion Corp +14.7% per year for the past ten years
34. American Electric Power +14.5% per year for the past ten years
35. Forest City Realty Trust +13.2% per year for seven years
36. First Financial Bancorp +12.7% per year for the past ten years
37. Eaton Corp plc +12.7% per year for the past ten years
38. Cincinnati Financial +12.3% per year for the past ten years
39. Progressive Corp +12.1% per year for the past ten years
40. Sherwin-Williams +12.0% per year for the past ten years
41. Parker-Hannifin +12.0% per year for the past ten years
42. Owens-Illinois +11.7% per year for the past ten years
43. The Kroger Company +11.2% per year for the past ten years
44. Air Transport Services Group +10.8% per year for the past ten years
45. FirstEnergy +10.2% per year for the past ten years
46. TFS Financial Corp +10.2% per year for nine years
47. KeyCorp +9.8% per year for the past ten years
48. Chemed Corp +9.7% per year for the past ten years
49. E,W. Scripps +9.1 per year for the past ten years
50. PolyOne Corp +9.1% per year for the past ten years
51. J. M. Smucker +8.8% per year for the past ten years
52. CBIZ Inc +8.7% per year for the past ten years
53. Dana Inc +8.4% per year for the past ten years
54. Lancaster Colony +8.0% per year for the pat ten years
55. Lincoln Electric Holdings +7.6% per year for the past ten years
56. American Financial Group +7.6% per year for the next ten years
57. Procter & Gamble +7.4% per year for the past ten years
58. Macy's +6.6% per year for the past ten years
59. Owens Corning +6.3% per year for the past ten years
60. Goodyear Tire & Rubber +5.4% per year for the past ten years
61. Mettler-Toledo +2.1% per year for the past ten years
62. 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 give the Company a luxury tax penalty for granting in the aggregate its Top-Tier Executives other than its CEO clearly excessive pay and employee benefit increases in a given year.

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
Designer Brands	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
Schottenstein Executive Chairman	3,989	3,141		3,141	2,978		2,978	2,994		2,994	1,810		1,810	2,145
Rawlins CEO	8,274	4,865		4,865	1,642		1,642	2,739		2,739	1,493		1,493	1,143
Ferree Vice Chair and President	6,951	4,870		4,870	4,684		4,684	3,811		3,811	3,053		3,053	3,576
Poff CFO	1,314	885		885	719		719	596
Jordan President of  DSW	3,331	2,021		2,021	1,645		1,645	1,604		1,604	1,512
Meixelsperger CFO										N/A	N/A
McDermott COO										1,671	1,555		1,555	1,123
MacDonald Former CEO										N/A	N/A		4,469	4,850
Probst CFO													N/A	N/A
Totals	23,859	15,782		15,782	11,668		11,668	11,744		12,819	9,423		12,380	12,837
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	51.2%			35.3%			-0.6%			36.0%			-3.6%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		23.7%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
Designer Brands	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
Schottenstein Executive Chairman	2,145	2,248		2,248	2,205		2,205	1,776		1,776	750		750	1,037
Rawlins CEO	N/A	N/A
Ferree Vice Chair and President	3,576	3,762		3,762	3,981		3,981	3,852		3,852	3,558		3,558	1,923
McDermott COO	1,123	1,173
MacDonald Former CEO	4,850	5,087		5,087	5,038		5,038	5,161		N/A	N/A
Probst CFO	1,466	1,600		1,600	1,756		1,756	1,706		1,706	1,779		1,779	980
Mustafa EVP	1,223	1,300		1,300	1,448		1,448	1,419		1,419	1,487		1,487	887
Ricker EVP													1,411	913
Totals	14,383	15,170		13,997	14,428		14,428	13,914		8,753	7,574		8,985	5,740
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-5.2%			-3.0%			3.7%			15.6%			56.5%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		13.5%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		18.6%