Irvine, California-Based Edwards Lifesciences Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Very Reasonable 2.3% Per Year During the Past Ten Years. There Appears To Be No Grade Inflation Going On Here.

The fifth Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate just held in Atlanta showed just how strong the field is.  I thought 8 of the 10 candidates had very strong performances, with Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Andrew Yang all having exceptional performances.  

A clear majority of the US is desperately seeking in the next US President someone who can unify the country.  Of all the Democratic Presidential candidates, Pete Buttigieg will be the best unifier of a very divided country.

Joe Biden is an exceptionally nice guy but his 77 years of age clearly impaired the effectiveness of his communication in this debate as it had in the other debates.  

While Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both performed well in the debate, they are still both burdened significantly by their positions on Medicare For All, which is fiscally extremely expensive (probably cost $20 to $30 trillion over ten years which would compound to $50 to $80 trillion over twenty years)  and which also doesn't permit citizens to keep their present health care insurance even if they really like it, and many do, including many union members who have fought hard to get the exceptional health care insurance that they now have and also including the rapidly-growing each year to now more than 20 million seniors who have chosen what they consider to be an attractive private health care insurance plan available in Medicare.

Barack Obama is spot on when he recently said that Democratic Presidential candidates shouldn’t pursue policies that were not rooted in reality.

And Obama was also spot on when he said that Democrats should push hard on the income inequality issue, arguing that this is an area where the room to talk about this in bold ways is greater than it was in 2008.

Further he said that it is very important for the Democratic Party to be clear and bold about saying that we are going to initiate structural changes that reduce that inequality.

The sixth Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate will be held on December 19, 2019 on the lovely campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.  

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 large Los Angeles area Companies were rewarded with in the past five to ten years.

I will be doing this research mostly by stock market capitalization and thus the third Los Angeles area company I am addressing here is Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

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

Edwards Lifesciences Corp's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a very reasonable 2.3% per year during the past ten years.

	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Edwards Lifesciences	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
Mussallem Chairman and CEO	10,279	10,798		10,798	9,734		9,734	9,030		9,030	8,620		8,617	6,612
Ullem CFO	3,022	3,185		3,185	2,906		2,906	2,802		2,802	8,219
Bobo Corporate VP	2,903	3,149		3,149	2,858		2,858	2,753		2,753	2,538		2,535	1,930
Szyman Corporate VP	2,795	2,917		2,917	2,843		2,843	5,738
Wood Corporate VP	2,918	3,122		3,122	2,902		2,902	2,774		2,772	2,667		2,664	1,905
Verguet Corporate VP													3,224	2,484
Totals	21,917	23,171		23,171	21,243		21,243	23,097		17,357	22,044		17,040	12,931
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-5.4%			9.1%			-8.0%			-21.3%			31.8%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		1.2%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Edwards Lifesciences	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
Mussallem Chairman and CEO	6,612	7,388		7,388	6,210		6,210	5,829		5,829	5,709		5,709	5,778
Bobo Corporate VP	1,930	2,025		2,025	1,846		1,846	1,719		1,719	1,657
Wood Corporate VP	1,905	2,024
Verguet Corporate VP	2,484	2,483		2,483	2,628		2,628	2,195		2,243	1,962		1,962	2,019
Abate Former CFO	2,203	2,290		2,290	2,065		2,065	1,885		1,885	1,845		1,845	1,979
Solomon Corporate VP	1,960	2,236		2,236	2,109		2,109	1,912		1,912	1,743		1,743	1,624
Totals	17,094	18,446		16,422	14,858		14,858	13,540		13,588	12,916		11,259	11,400
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-7.3%			10.5%			9.7%			5.2%			-1.2%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		3.4%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		2.3%