From Semler Brossy comes a report on say on pay votes to date in the 2021 proxy season:
22 Russell 3000 companies (3.3%) failed Say on Pay thus far in 2021.
If there was ever going to be a year in which one might have expected say on pay votes to show real teeth, surely 2021 was the year. As The Guardian reported:
The millionaire chief executives of some of the American companies with the lowest-paid workers saw an average pay raise of 29% last year while their workers saw a 2% decrease, according to a report released Tuesday. ...
The compensation hike came as companies gave their top leaders hefty bonuses and forgiving performance benchmarks during the pandemic, allowing the top executives to cash in while their low-wage employees were essential workers.
The WSJ likewise reported that:
CEO pay surged in 2020, a year of historic business upheaval, a wrenching labor market for many workers and unprecedented challenges for many leaders.
Median pay for the chief executives of more than 300 of the biggest U.S. public companies reached $13.7 million last year, up from $12.8 million for the same companies a year earlier and on track for a record, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Pay kept climbing in 2020 as some companies moved performance targets or modified pay structures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying economic pain. Salary cuts CEOs took at the depths of the crisis had little effect. The stock market’s rebound boosted what top executives took home because much of their compensation comes in the form of equity.
Yet, say on pay votes remain within the historic pattern of shareholder rubber-stamping CEO pay. So what's the point?
