CEO pay soars as nameplate state (Wisconsin) firms skirt taxes

This month we selected four big manufacturers to look at
some of the basic trends in corporate America: soaring
executive pay, plentiful profits, shrinking workforces and
minimal taxes paid.
Each has thousands of Wisconsin employees: Kimberly-
Clark, the paper-products giant; Brunswick, owner of
Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac; Snap-on, the Kenosha
auto-tool firm; and Rockwell Automation, descendant of
Allen-Bradley, a Milwaukee industrial icon.
We examined a decade of data for these firms and their
subsidiaries, from 2000 through 2009 (the most recent
year with tax data.) Some conclusions:
• Average compensation for the firms’ highest-paid
executive tripled in the decade, from $2.3 million to
$6.9 million.
• Profits rolled in; ten-for-ten profitable years for all but
Brunswick, which lost money only in 2008- 09. Total
pretax profits from all four for the decade: $29 billion.
• State income tax payments were almost universally
$0. Three of the firms paid nothing during 2000-2009.
The fourth (K-C) paid tax in only three of the ten years.
Its total tax payments: $2.9 million. [See table on page
2 for details on taxes compared with profits.]
• Global employment shrank dramatically, falling by
21%, 44% and 41% at three of the firms and rising a
modest 2% at the fourth (K-C). Wisconsin employment
data are not available.

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