Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Hickory, North Carolina CommScope Holding's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 19.7% Per Year During the Past Six Years

I think that Pete Buttigieg was the clear winner in the recent 6th 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Debate held in Los Angeles.  Pete very successfully warded off a vicious barrage of strange attacks from several parties.  Amy Klobuchar was the clear loser in this debate, attacking Pete irrationally as if she were acting in desperation.  Her nastiness here seems consistent with the rumor that she does not treat her own staff very well.

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 and also most of the largest technology companies headquartered in Northern California.

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 in located right under his nose in his home State of Delaware, mostly in one Wilmington building.

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

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 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 North Carolina, one of the 14 Super Tuesday 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary US States.  

I will be doing this research mostly by stock market capitalization and thus the 21st North Carolina Company that I am addressing here is CommScope Holding.

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

CommScope Holding's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 19.7% per year during the past six years, which is the 8th highest of the 21 very large North Carolina Companies I have addressed so far.

  1. LendingTree +272.6% per year for the past five years
  2. PRA Health Sciences +62.4% per year for the past five years
  3. IQVIA Holdings +43.1% per year for the past five years
  4. Martin Marietta Materials +37.0% per year for the past five years
  5. Syneos Health +30.0% per year for the past five years
  6. Premier Inc +27.5% per year for the past six years
  7. V.F.  Corp +20.8% per year for the past years
  8. CommScope Holding +19.7% per year for the past six years
  9. Red Hat +19.3% per year for the past five years
  10. Advance Auto Parts +19.2% per year for the past five years
  11. Albemarle +18.9% per year for the past five years 
  12. Duke Energy +17.1% per year for the past ten years
  13. Old Dominion Freight Line +16.0% per year for the past five years
  14. First Citizens Bancshares +15.9% per year for the past five years
  15. BB&T Corp +15.1% per year for the past ten years
  16. Nucor Corp +14.8% per year for the past five years
  17. Laboratory Corp of America +9.1% per year for the past five years
  18. Ingersoll-Rand plc +8.4% per year for the past ten years
  19. Bank of America +6.0% per year for the past five years
  20. Lowe's Companies + 4.2% per year for the past ten years
  21. Qorvo +4.0% per year for the past four 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.

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.

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
CommScope Holding 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
 Edwards CEO        8,893       8,499       8,499       7,626       7,626       5,798       5,798       3,889       3,889       4,855
 Olson Former CFO   N/A   N/A        2,240       2,681       2,681       1,896       1,896       1,373       1,373       1,343
 Karlsson SVP Sales        2,118       1,976       1,976       2,088       2,088       1,570       1,570       1,351       1,351       1,378
 Wyatt Chief Legal Officer        1,695       1,574       1,574       1,979       1,979       1,516       1,516       1,318       1,318       1,774
 Drendel Chairman        2,045       1,928       1,928       2,405       2,405       2,030       2,030       1,318       1,318       7,580
 Crenshaw Former COO        2,700       3,392       3,392       2,546       2,546       2,113       2,113       2,759
 Totals      14,751     13,977     18,917     20,171     20,171     15,356     15,356     11,362     11,362     19,689
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 5.5% -6.2% 31.4% 35.2% -42.3%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change 4.7%
FYE FYE
Dec Dec
CommScope Holding 2013 2012
Top-Tier Total Total
Executive Comp Comp
$ 000s $ 000s
 Edwards CEO        4,855       3,265
 Olson Former CFO        1,343       1,575
 Karlsson SVP Sales   N/A   N/A 
 Wyatt Chief Legal Officer        1,774       1,162
 Drendel Chairman        7,580       1,577
 Crenshaw Former COO        2,759       1,834
 Totals      18,311       9,413
Annual % Change vs Prior Year 94.5%
6 Year Average Per Year % Change 19.7%