Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Cambridge, Massachusetts Akamai Technologies Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 20.6% Per Year During the Past Ten Years

I think that Pete Buttigieg was the clear winner in the recent 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Debate held in Los Angeles.  Mayor Pete very successfully warded off a vicious barrage of strange attacks from both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, which seemed like they were acting in desperation.

I have researched and made posts related to Top-Tier Executive Total Compensation in most of the largest companies headquartered in the four earliest 2020 Democratic Primary States ..... Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Then, of the 14 Super Tuesday US States holding their 2020 Democratic Presidential Primaries on March 3, 2020, I made like posts related to most of the largest Texas Companies, most of the largest Southern California companies, most of the largest technology companies headquartered in Northern California, most of the largest North Carolina Companies and most of the largest Minnesota Companies.

My research has shown that Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer are all spot on when they assert that US Corporate Financial Corruption is rampant.  But the problem is that none of the three have any clue on precisely the cause or how to effectively fix this huge problem which is also the primary cause of the huge, continuing US income inequality expansion which has been occurring for decades.

But even worse, even though he is a very nice man, Joe Biden is so naive that he isn't even aware of the extent of this continuing huge US income inequality expansion or precisely its cause which has been occurring under his nose for the past forty plus years, nor is he aware of, or else has decided to ignore, just how huge the largest US tax shelters are which are located right under his nose in his home State of Delaware, mostly in one Wilmington building.

On the very negative side, voting for many years for the Annual Income Tax Loophole Extenders which dramatically increased US income inequality expansion each year were Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden.  On the positive side, voting for many years against these same Annual Income Tax Loophole Extenders were Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are still both saddled with their pure Medicare For All position, which is highly unpopular to US voters at large.  If either of them won the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary, they would stand very little chance of beating Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential general election.

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 percentage 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, this would be just a  mere drop in the bucket as compared to the fact that 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 this huge pay inequality problem also exists widely in the non-profit sector including in non-profit hospitals.  And it also exists widely in state and local governments, especially in public education.

So now I will be addressing Top-Tier Executive Compensation for five to ten years in some of the largest companies in the State of Massachusetts, one of the 14 Super Tuesday 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary US States.  Massachusetts is also home to two 2020 Democratic Presidential candidates ..... Elizabeth Warren and Deval Patrick.  

I will be doing this research mostly by stock market capitalization and thus the 17th Massachusetts Company that I am addressing here is Akamai Technologies Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Proxy Statement filings with the US SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows Akamai Technologies Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of the two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years.  

Akamai Technologies Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 20.6% per year during the past ten years, which is the 9th highest of the 17 very large Massachusetts Companies I have addressed so far.
  1. Keurig Dr Pepper +57.4% per year for the past five years
  2. Hologic +48.2% per year for the past five years
  3. Eversource Energy +27.7% per year for the past five years
  4. Waters Corp +26.8% per year for the past five years
  5. Analog Devices +25.2% per year for the past five years
  6. Thermo Fisher Scientific +23.7% per year for the past ten years
  7. Vertex Pharmaceuticals + 22.2% per year for the past five years
  8. The TJX Companies +20.7% per year for the past ten years
  9. Akamai Technologies +20.6% per year for the past ten years 
  10. Skyworks Solutions +19.6% per year for the past five years
  11. General Electric +17.8% per year for the past five years
  12. Raytheon +16.4% per year for the past five years
  13. Biogen +14.9% per year for the past five years
  14. American Tower Corp +9.6% per year for the past ten years
  15. Boston Properties +5.8% per year for the past ten years
  16. Boston Scientific +4.9% per year for the past five years
  17. State Street Corp +2.8% per year for the past five years
So who is causing these extremely high Top-Tier Executives pay percentages increases, which tend to be much higher than the Companies' actual financial performance?

And who is causing the annual minuscule raises for the company non-executive employees? 

Generally it works like this.

The Company's Board of Directors set the pay standards for the total compensation of the CEO for each year.   
  
Then the CEO establishes the pay standards for the Top-Tier Executives, which is reviewed by the Company's Board of Directors.  

And the CEO also usually approves the overall pay and employee benefits annual percentage increases for each of the other levels of the Company's employees.

So who is this huge, continuing Company pay and employee benefit income inequality "on"?

Clearly it's "on" the Company's CEO and the Company's Board of Directors.

It's simple math.  The lower the annual percentage raise for the Company's non-executive employees, the higher the Company's annual profits and thus also the higher the annual percentage raise for the Company's executives since their annual pay raise is tied to Company profits.

The end result is massive, continuing income inequality expansion.

And the only way it will be fixed is by wisely-designed US Government tax legislation, which gives companies very nice tax incentives for paying non-executive employees very well in a given year and which also requires companies to pay a luxury tax when executives are paid clearly too much in a given year or when non-executive employees are clearly paid too little in a given year.  In addition, it would be very helpful to dramatically increase the US Earned Income Tax Credit.

So, why hasn't it been fixed? 

Because more than half of the US Congress, including more than a few Democrats, are effectively controlled by the US Corps or because the US President is controlled by the US Corps who are vigorously fighting to be at the top of the list of US Corps continuing to expand income inequality.

So how do you solve that problem?

Vote for US Senators, US House members and a US President who isn't controlled by the US Corps which view their non-executive employees and contract workers as Costs rather than as People ..... they all don't, but a clear majority of them do.

It's that simple.


  FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
Akamai Technologies 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
 Leighton CEO      11,348       9,203       9,203       6,259       6,259       8,500       8,500       7,500       7,500       7,632
 Benson CFO        4,175       3,406       3,406       2,495       2,495       2,842       2,842       2,964       2,964       2,443
 Blumofe EVP Platform and GM Enterprise Division        4,120       3,367       3,367       2,422       2,422       2,371       2,371       2,205       2,205       1,776
 McConnell GM Web Division        5,823       4,664       4,664       3,591       3,591       4,184       4,184       4,399       4,399       4,272
 Wheaton        2,976       2,405
 Hughes        4,184       4,399       4,400       4,262
 Haratunian General Counsel        2,347       1,796
 Totals      25,466     20,640     23,616     17,172     14,767     17,897     22,081     21,467     23,815     22,181
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 23.4% 37.5% -17.5% 2.9% 7.4%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 10.7%
FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec
Akamai Technologies 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
 Leighton CEO   N/A   N/A 
 Benson CFO        2,443       2,078       2,078       1,150       1,192          881    
 Blumofe EVP Platform and GM Enterprise Division   N/A   N/A     
 McConnell GM Web Division        4,272       1,589  N/A   N/A     
 Hughes        4,262       4,866       4,866       5,200       5,230       3,237       3,362       3,837       3,837       2,211
 Haratunian General Counsel        1,796       1,434       1,434       1,628       1,663       1,138       1,174       1,380       1,380       1,122
Sagan CEO       9,773     11,877     11,877       5,714       5,965       7,054       7,054       4,182
Sherman Former CFO  N/A   N/A        4,678       2,860       2,985       3,661       3,661       1,711
Canner SVP HR       1,457       1,100       1,100       1,215  N/A   N/A 
Kenny Former President  N/A   N/A 
 Totals      12,773       9,967     18,151     19,855     26,097     14,930     14,586     17,147     15,932       9,226
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 28.2% -8.6% 74.8% -14.9% 72.7%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 30.4%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change 20.6%


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