Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Carmel, Indiana-Based KAR Auction Services Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 22.5% Per Year During the Past Ten Years

"Red for Ed Action Day" is where thousands of Indiana public school teachers will be going to the Indianapolis State Capital Building on November 19, 2019 to lobby for better teacher pay and working conditions and also better resources for students.

It's good to see that Unions are now stepping up all over the US in order to obtain a better deal for their union members.  All Democratic Presidential candidates are on the side of unions in their talking points.  But I think the most effective in actually getting excellent outcomes for union members will be the financially-savvy, extremely bright Pete Buttigieg, who with his calm, good listener consideration-for-others demeanor, is also very gifted in the negotiating process.  Further, Mayor Pete's Health Care Plan will not take away union members excellent health care insurance coverage which they have fought hard to get, whereas Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's Medicare For All Health Care Plan will. 

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 Indiana 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.

So far in my research of large US Corps headquartered in many US States all over the country, 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, even 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.

But it's not just in the private sector.  There are also large differences in the annual percentage raises of pay and employee benefits of executives and non-executives in the non-profit sector, including hospitals.

And it's also in state and local government entities.

With its decisions on state education funding with the resultant extremely low total annual percentage pay and employee benefit increases for State public school teachers for decades but especially so since Republicans have taken total control of the Indiana State Government, it's pretty clear to me that the Indiana State Government primarily views public school educators as simply Costs in a State Fiscal Budget, rather than what they are ..... the critical drivers of the future success of the State of Indiana.

Also for decades, but particularly since Republicans have taken complete control of the Indiana State Government, it appears that Indiana Public School Superintendents or their equivalents as well as their direct reports have received annual percentage pay and employee benefits increases which have been substantially higher than what public school teachers have received.

In all fairness, going forward there should be some form of clawbacks for these past excessive pay and employee benefits rewarded to members of these Indiana State Education Administrations which cut into what State public school teachers received.

After all, the clear driver of Indiana’s future are the public education teachers in the classroom, not the Education Administration.

Therefore Indiana State Legislatures should set maximum annual percentage pay and employee benefits increases for every Superintendent and his/her direct reports to correct for this unfairness in pay.  Thus the allocation to State public education teachers would be much higher than they otherwise would have been. 

I think it would be very helpful to see how these extremely low annual percentage pay and employee benefits increases of Indiana State public school teachers compares with the annual percentage pay and employee benefits increases of the Top-Tier Executives of Indiana publicly-held companies.  Publicly-held companies are required to disclose this Top-Tier Executive compensation information in their annual Proxy Statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Thus I will now be doing research and making posts on the annual pay and employee benefits percentage increases that the Top-Tier Executives of the largest Indiana Headquartered Companies were rewarded with in the past five or ten years in order to give a better understanding of the enormous gap between the annual percentage pay and employee benefits increases of the Top-Tier Executives of these Indiana Companies and the Indiana public school teachers.  

I will be doing this research generally by largest stock market capitalization and thus the 23rd Indiana Company that I am addressing here is KAR Auction Services Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows KAR Auction Services Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.
  
KAR Auction Services Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 22.5% per year during the past ten years which is the 11th highest of the 23 large Indiana headquartered companies I have addressed so far and also which is probably close to twenty times what Indiana State public school educators received as an average annual percentage pay and employee benefits raise during the same ten-year period.
  1. OneMain Holdings +1,383% per year for the past six years
  2. Biomet +120.5% per year for five years
  3. Simon Property Group +53.7% per year for the past ten years
  4. Allison Transmission Holdings +37.6% per year for the past five years
  5. Mead Johnson Nutrition +32.9% per year for eight years
  6. Steel Dynamics +32.3% per year for the past five years
  7. Endocyte +30.8% per year for eight years
  8. Elanco Animal Health +30.2% for annual 2018
  9. NiSource Spinoff Columbia Pipeline Group +25.2 per year for three years
  10. Berry Global Group +22.9% per year for the past eight years
  11. KAR Auction Services +22.5% per year for the past ten years
  12. Thor Industries +20.1% per year for the past ten years
  13. NiSource +19.5% per year for the past five years
  14. Cummins +18.1% per year for the past ten years
  15. First Merchants Corp +16.1% per year for the past five years
  16. Zimmer Biomet Holdings +15.3% per year for the past five years
  17. Duke Realty Corp +13.8% per year for the past five years
  18. Anthem Inc +13.5% per year for the past ten years
  19. Eli Lilly % Co +13.3% per year for the past five years
  20. Franklin Electric +13.2% per year for the past five years
  21. Vectren +13.2% per year for nine years 
  22. Allegion plc +11.3% per year for the past six years
  23. Old National Bancorp +10.3% per year for the past ten years


FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
KAR Auction Services 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
Hallett Chairman and CEO       6,138       5,812       5,812       5,078       5,078       4,824       4,824       4,808       4,808       5,994
Loughmiller CFO       1,942       1,837       1,837       2,218       2,218       2,194       2,194       2,263       2,263       2,928
Hammer President ADESA  N/A   N/A 
Gottwald President Digital, Data and Mobility Solutions       2,227       2,313       2,313       2,030       2,030       1,934       1,934       1,171       1,171          884
Polak Chief Legal Officer       1,823       1,753       1,753       1,337       1,337       1,192       1,192       1,223       1,223       1,317
Kett President of IAA       1,772       1,499       1,499       1,441    
St-Hilaire President of ADESA       1,628       1,557       1,557       1,536    
Kelly Chief Technology Officer       1,531       1,381       1,381          914    
 Totals      12,130     11,715     13,487     12,162     15,321     14,523     13,082     11,915       9,465     11,123
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 3.5% 10.9% 5.5% 9.8% -14.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 3.0%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
KAR Auction Services 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
Hallett Chairman and CEO       5,994       1,414       1,414       1,475       1,475       2,689       2,689       1,414       1,414          778
Loughmiller CFO       2,928          656          656          677          677          743          743          697          697          422
Gottwald President Digital, Data and Mobility Solutions          884          803          803          854          854          848          848       1,465
Polak Chief Legal Officer       1,317          552          552          527    
O'Brien CEO of IAA       1,006          856          856       1,158       1,158       1,203       1,203       1,027       1,027          859
Caruso Chief Client Officer           988          955          955       1,068       1,068       1,828    
Clingen Chairman  N/A   N/A 
Nordin CIO       1,159          351
 Totals      13,117       5,236       5,236       5,759       5,232       7,311       5,483       4,603       4,297       2,410
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 150.5% -9.1% -28.4% 19.1% 78.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 42.1%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 22.5%
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