San Francisco, California Wells Fargo's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase Was a Blistering 19.3% Per Year During the Past Ten Years. With All of Their Lack of Acceptable Execution, I Have a Difficult Time Understanding Why Wells Fargo's Top-Tier Executives Received Such Huge Raises 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.

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 North Carolina Companies, most of the largest Minnesota Companies, most of the largest Massachusetts Companies, most of the largest Southern California companies and most of the largest technology companies headquartered in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley, California area.  Thus I now will complete California Companies by covering most of the largest Non-Technology Companies in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley, California area. 

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.  They don't understand precisely the mechanics of how large US Corps have expanded income inequality so dramatically in each year for decades.  You can't fix something you don't sufficiently understand.  It's insufficient to just grouchily complain about it all of the time without offering effective solutions. 

There is only one Democratic Presidential candidate who has both the requisite financial acumen and economic fairness to turn the tide on this massive, continuing US income inequality expansion ..... Pete Buttigieg.  

Frankly, Joe Biden is devoid of financial acumen.  Biden is a very nice man, but he is so naive on economic issues 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 Biden 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, Delaware building.  These Delaware tax shelters have substantially added to US income inequality each year.

Amy Klobuchar has very little financial acumen.  Similar to the way Republicans think, Amy successfully pushed strongly for tax breaks for the many Medical Companies in Minnesota but that has substantially expanded income inequality with no trickle down economic benefit to the middle and lower economic classes. 

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

If you want four more years of huge US income inequality expansion like we have had in the past forty years, then Joe Biden is your man.

I think Joe Biden would have a very difficult time beating Donald Trump.  With his advanced age, Biden has a very low energy level, whereas Trump, with his unbelievably high energy level, reminds me of the energizer bunny.  US citizens want an energetic US President.  

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 little chance of beating Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential general election.  Warren, with her consistently likable charismatic positive posture, would stand a much better chance of beating Trump than Bernie would, who comes across as a grumpy old white guy.

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 Non-Technology Companies in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area of California.  

I will be doing this research mostly by stock market capitalization and thus the second Northern California Company that I am addressing here is the giant Wells Fargo.

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

Wells Fargo's Top-Tier Executives Average Annual Pay and Employee Benefits Increase was a blistering 19.3% per year during the past ten years.

So who is causing these extremely high Top-Tier Executives annual pay percentages increases, which tend to be much higher than the Companies' actual annual 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 surprisingly 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 aren'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.

	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Wells Fargo	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
Sloan CEO	18,427	17,564		17,564	13,015		13,015	11,039		11,039	10,448		10,448	8,835
Stumpf Former Chairman and CEO							N/A	N/A		19,319	21,426		21,426	19,320
Shrewsberry CFO	12,529	11,940		11,940	9,277		9,277	9,072		9,072	7,409
Mack Senior EVP Consumer Banking	N/A	N/A
Modjtabai Sr EVP Payments&Virtual Solutions	10,387	10,625		10,625	9,290		9,290	9,078		9,078	9,518		9,518	8,798
Pelos Senior EVP Wholesale Banking	8,987	6,752
Carroll Former Sr EVP Wealth Mgt				N/A	N/A		9,412	9,094		9,094	9,698		9,698	8,869
Tolstedt Former Sr EVP Community Banking							N/A	N/A		9,092	9,518		9,518	8,750
Totals	50,330	46,881		40,129	31,582		40,994	38,283		66,694	68,017		60,608	54,572
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	7.4%			27.1%			7.1%			-1.9%			11.1%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		10.1%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec		Dec	Dec
Wells Fargo	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
Sloan CEO	8,835	9,014		9,014	8,339
Stumpf Former Chairman and CEO	19,320	22,878		22,878	19,848		19,843	18,974		18,974	21,341		21,341	9,041
Modjtabai Sr EVP Payments&Virtual Solutions	8,798	8,570
Carroll Former Sr EVP Wealth Mgt	8,869	8,613		8,613	8,016		8,011	7,922		7,922	14,303
Tolstedt Former Sr EVP Community Banking	8,750	8,855		8,855	8,704		8,699	8,408
Hoyt Sr EVP Wholesale Banking	11,087	12,843		12,843	10,547		10,542	12,765		12,765	13,477		13,477	4,840
Atkins Former CFO							N/A	N/A		9,327	11,623		11,623	4,946
Oman Former Sr EVP Home&ConsumerFinance							N/A	N/A		9,688	12,722		12,722	3,933
Totals	65,659	70,773		62,203	55,454		47,095	48,069		58,676	73,466		59,163	22,760
Totals	-7.2%			12.2%			-2.0%			-20.1%			159.9%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		28.5%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		19.3%