Dow

Annual meeting: April 15

Dow CEO Jim Fitterling’s pay for 2020 was $22,211,255 and included a $5.4 million increase in   pension value. In its summary compensation table, Dow includes an extra column that could easily mislead shareholders by its exclusion of the changes in pension value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings. Even with this exclusion, the CEO’s pay increased by 34 percent, from $12,476,488 in 2019 to $16,763,267 in 2020.

While Fitterling did not receive any non-equity incentive compensation payments (NEIC) in 2019, he did in 2020 (just over $3 million). However, it is worth noting that while some companies have altered compensation   in response to COVID, Dow did not. (A number of these companies have already had majority votes against their pay packages this year.)

Overall, Dow has a high level of CEO pay. Specifically, the increase in pension value is noteworthy. The past decades have seen a movement away from company pensions towards required employee saving for retirement.  Dow stopped providing pensions for front-line employees who joined the company after 2008. The CEO’s increasing compensation is more than adequate to cover for his retirement. Thus, the over $5 million increase in pension value (of which the full amount does not appear to be transparently disclosed) in a single year seems particularly problematic.