Minneapolis, Minnesota Utility Company XCEL Energy's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 22.2% 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 recently in Los Angeles.  Mayor Pete very successfully warded off a vicious barrage of strange attacks from several parties.  I think Amy Klobuchar was the clear loser in this debate, attacking Pete irrationally as if she were acting in desperation.  Her nastiness here is consistent with the rumor that she does not treat her own staff 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, most of the largest technology companies headquartered in Northern California and most of the largest North Carolina 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 very 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  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 Minnesota, 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 8th Minnesota Company that I am addressing here is Utility Company XCEL Energy.

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

XCEL Energy's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 22.2% per year during the past ten years, which is the second highest of the eight very large Minnesota Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Medtronic plc +39.4% per year for the past five years
2. XCEL Energy +22.2% per year for the past ten years
3. Target +19.3% per year for the past five years
4. 3M Co +18.3% per year for the past ten years
5. US Bancorp +16.3% per year for the past five years
6. UnitedHealth Group +9.6% per year for the past five years
7. Travelers Companies +5.8% per year for the past five years
8. Ecolab +5.6% 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.

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
XCEL Energy	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
Fowke Chair and CEO	12,148	12,676		12,676	11,520		11,520	9,433		9,433	12,870		12,870	15,744
Frenzel CFO	3,118	2,754		N/A	N/A
Larson EVP	2,724	2,781		2,781	2,702		2,702	2,657		2,657	2,933		2,933	2,475
Wilensky General Counsel	2,242	2,020		2,020	2,055		2,055	2,111
McDaniel EVP				2,798	2,696		2,696	2,394		2,394	2,518		2,518	2,307
Madden Former CFO							N/A	N/A		2,816	3,146		3,146	2,719
Sparby Former SVP													2,051	3,667
Totals	20,232	20,231		20,275	18,973		18,973	16,595		17,300	21,467		23,518	26,912
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	0.0%			6.9%			14.3%			-19.4%			-12.6%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		-2.2%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
XCEL Energy	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
Fowke Chair and CEO	15,744	10,966		10,966	9,676		9,676	3,939		3,939	3,385		3,385	1,557
Larson EVP	2,475	2,327		2,327	1,739
McDaniel EVP	2,307	2,143		2,143	2,097		2,097	1,416
Madden Former CFO	2,719	2,001		2,001	1,497
Sparby Former SVP	3,667	3,262		3,262	3,386		3,386	3,106		3,019	2,047		2,047	750
Connelly Former SVP				N/A	N/A		1,944	2,217		2,217	1,872
Kelly Retired Chair and CEO							N/A	N/A		9,956	11,340		11,340	5,074
Wilks Former Group President													2,327	1,009
Totals	26,912	20,699		20,699	18,395		17,103	10,678		19,131	18,644		19,099	8,390
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	30.0%			12.5%			60.2%			2.6%			127.6%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		46.6%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		22.2%