Amy gave the single most relevant phrase when she asserted that so much of what Elizabeth Warren is proposing are "Pipe Dreams" and have no chance of getting enacted. Independents and even reasonable Republicans, who will be deciding the 2020 Presidential general election, have zero interest in these fiscally irresponsible "Pipe Dreams". This is not going to unify the country, which is what the country is desperately seeking in the next President.
The fifth Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate will be held on November 20, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. Let's hope MSNBC does a much better job this time. Last time it couldn't control the candidates and also it pretty much ignored the key economic issues. Glad to see Washington Post is co-hosting this key event.
So far in my research of large US Corps I have shown that their Top-Tier Executives have been rewarded continually with just enormous annual increases in pay and employee benefits, mostly stock equity compensation, to the extent that the key issue to US 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 Corps here.
So I now will be doing research and making posts on the annual pay and employee benefits percentage increases that the Top-Tier Executives of large Georgia Companies were rewarded with in the past five to ten years.
The 16th Georgia Company I am addressing here is WestRock Co.
From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the bottom below shows WestRock Co's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past five years.
WestRock Co's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 20.0% per year during the past five years, which was the 8th highest of the 16 very large Georgia-Related Companies I have addressed so far.
- Fleetcor Technologies +83.1% per year for the past nine years
- Global Payments Inc +37.6% per year for the past five years
- Total Systems Services +26.3% per year for the past five years
- Genuine Parts Co +26.3% per year for the past five years
- United Parcel Services +24.6% per year for the past five years
- Intercontinental Exchange +23.4% per year for the past ten years
- Republic Services +21.1% per year for the past ten years
- WestRock +20.0% per year for the past five years
- Rollins Inc +11.8% per year for the past five years
- Equifax +11.3% per year for the past five years
- Southern Company +10.8% per year for the past five years
- SunTrust Banks +10.3% per year for the past five years
- Delta Air Lines +9.7% per year for the past five years
- Aflac Inc +8.3% per year for the past ten years
- Home Depot +5.3% per year for the past five years
- Coca-Cola +2.0% per year for the past five 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 under the radar screen every year just before calendar year end, but nothing was even close to being 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 Georgia 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.
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, sort the employees by declining current year compensation. Then set up five quintiles of equal total dollars of US employees compensation. The employees to include should just be ones who have full year compensation in both the current year and in 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.
My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Georgia 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.
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, sort the employees by declining current year compensation. Then set up five quintiles of equal total dollars of US employees compensation. The employees to include should just be ones who have full year compensation in both the current year and in 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 | |||||
| Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | Sept | |||||
| WestRock Co | 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 | |||||
| Voorhees CEO | 18,031 | 11,386 | 11,386 | 10,737 | 10,737 | 7,279 | 7,279 | 6,824 | 6,824 | 3,505 | ||||
| Dickson CFO | 2,955 | 2,895 | 2,895 | 3,020 | 3,020 | 2,495 | 2,495 | 2,086 | N/A | N/A | ||||
| Porter President Latin America | 3,585 | 4,401 | 4,401 | 4,200 | 4,200 | 4,199 | 4,199 | 3,831 | 3,831 | 3,880 | ||||
| Feeser President Consumer Packaging | 3,132 | 3,027 | 3,027 | 3,285 | ||||||||||
| Chalovich President Corrugated Packaging | 2,738 | 2,578 | 2,578 | 1,854 | ||||||||||
| Shore President Multi Packaging Solutions | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||
| Beckler President Packaging Solutions | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||
| Kiepura President Packaging Solutions | N/A | N/A | 3,183 | 3,004 | ||||||||||
| McIntosh General Counsel | 1,749 | 1,530 | 1,530 | 1,380 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 30,441 | 24,287 | 24,287 | 23,096 | 17,957 | 13,973 | 15,722 | 14,271 | 15,368 | 11,769 | ||||
| Annual % Change vs Prior Year | 25.3% | 5.2% | 28.5% | 10.2% | 30.6% | |||||||||
| 5 Year Average Per Year % Change | 20.0% |
