Country: United States
As You Sow’s latest report on CEO pay finds small increases in opposition to excessive packages, but some investors want more action As You Sow’s latest report on CEO pay finds small increases in opposition to excessive packages, but some investors… As You Sow’s latest report on CEO pay finds small increases in opposition to excessive packages, but some investors want more action
Feb 26th, 2021
Despite all the talk of equality during the Covid crisis, the level of investor opposition to hefty CEO pay packages remains minimal.
“Very rarely do shareholders vote against pay because of a simple quantum, except where the amount of pay is so outrageous it would make even Donald Trump blush,” says Jamie Bonham, Director of Corporate Engagement at Canadian investment firm NEI Investments.
Backing this statement up, the latest report from US advocacy group As You Sow shows the median level of opposition to CEO pay at S&P 500 companies was 6.2% over the proxy year covered, to 30 June 2020.
However, in another set of calculations, the 100 Most Overpaid CEOs report excludes shares controlled by management and other insiders, counting only votes controlled by institutional fund managers. In that case, the study finds the number of S&P 500 firms where the CEO’s pay package failed to secure at least half the vote more than doubled - from six t…