TOOLS
CONTENTS:
OK, this site is the coolest. The site bills itself as having, according to their press release, "executive compensation packages of more than 36,000 executives employed with over 7,000 U.S. publicly-traded companies." You can use it to look up executive compensation at a single company by name, job title, ticker symbol or Employer Identification Number (EIN). There is a look-up by executive name, too!
The ability to do salary comparisons is my absolute favorite feature. I have always hated doing salary research when I have a prospect at a private company and need to find comparable compensation data for people in similar positions at similar public companies. This tool makes getting salary data a quick and easy job.
Simply enter your search criteria, click on the search button and, voilà, you get a nice table of compensation data. I like to search by the SIC codes and range of sales figures closest to those of the private company for which I want to estimate executive compensation. You can also include a specific job title to narrow the search but, with the odd titles that are popular these days, I usually don't do that.
If I get a lot of companies in my results, I can get a more exact comparison by including asset amounts, number of employees or net income. The search can also be narrowed geographically by checking state, city (MSA), metro area (PMSA) and combined metro areas (CMSA) under Basic Search Criteria, or by zip code in the Company Criteria section.
When your results come up, you see a list of public companies with their assets, revenues, net income and number of employees. You can sort the data by clicking on any column header. Then click on the executive tab to see a chart with executive name, company, salary, bonus, stock awards, LTIP, options and total cash compensation.
If you choose to search all public companies or a specific area, and you are not sure how the compensation compares to your state or metro area, click on the Compare These Numbers button. The right hand column on the new screen has a heading of Comparison Dataset, which allows you to compare data from a different geographic region or fiscal year and change the data you are viewing in the comparison. You can use this feature to compare data on the company and executive tabs. Pretty cool, huh?
It gets better. Back on the main search page, click on Show All Calculations to get the total, average and median of compensation data for executives or assets, etc., for companies.
And, if that is not enough, you can use this tool for prospecting. Put in your state or metro area, add a salary or total cash range (or use some other compensation category) and get a list of prosperous companies and executives.
If you sign up for the subscription feature, you can export all this data.
Another interesting feature on this site is the search feature that lets you research whether a public company employer has a "top hat plan" for some executives. These plans are a form of deferred compensation based on meeting performance goals and are designed to attract and retain employees. To learn more about such plans, see the explanation at the FMI Corporation's Web site.
http://www.fminet.com/global/Articles/PuttingOnTopHat_Sharpnack.pdf
Top hat plans are not reported in any SEC documents, but the employer must file a letter to notify the IRS that one is in existence. The search feature is a little cumbersome, but freeERISA shows you if the employer has a top hat plan and for how many of its executives, allowing you to guess whether your public company executive is high enough up the ladder to achieve these extra bonuses.
http://www.freeerisa.com/Extras/TopHat.asp?mode=SEARCH
And they tell us we can't have our cake and eat it too!
Chris Mildner
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