The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Say-on-Pay’

Taking Care of Bottom-Rung Employees is Good Business

The results of the six-year study surprised even its authors. They expected to find that, yes, you could provide bottom-rung employees with benefits and still be profitable. Instead they found that you should provide such benefits because doing so increases profits.

Senate Bill Changes Rules for Boards, Executive Pay

The bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 59-39, requires directors to win by majority vote in uncontested elections, gives the SEC authority to grant shareholders proxy access to nominate directors and gives shareholders the right to a nonbinding vote on executive pay. The measure must be reconciled with a House bill.

Beauty and the CEO: Looks Matter (Seriously)

There is a “significant relationship” between an executive’s facial traits and the chances that he or she will rise to the job of chief executive, according to a new academic paper. The study found that CEOs who appear more competent-looking – even though they may not be – also tend to get paid more.

Motorola Shareholders Disapprove of CEO Pay

The vote, reported by RiskMetrics Group, a proxy and governance research firm, marks the first time that a U.S. company has failed to earn majority support from shareholders during a non-binding vote on compensation. RiskMetrics said Illinois-based Motorola was one of only a handful of U.S. issuers that last year had less than 65 percent for its pay practices.

Obama Presses for Shareholder Reforms

In a speech, the President reviewed causes of the recent financial crisis, pointedly declaring that some on Wall Street “forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement.” He also declared: “A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.”

Financial Reform Bill Includes New Governance Measures

Among other things, the measure would give shareholders a say on pay by permitting a non-binding vote on executive pay. And it would give the SEC authority to grant shareholders proxy access to nominate directors.

Say-on-Pay Shareholder Votes Gain Momentum

The number of so-called “say-on-pay” votes has increased from only 6 in 2008, when Aflac Inc. became the first to adopt the practice, and 19 in 2009.

Opinion: When CSR Became a Movement

Bill Baue argues that CSR is not a random collection of ad hoc, discrete actions to revise corporate behavior, but rather has become a coherent aggregation of sustained, widespread efforts to reform (or even revolutionize) the role of corporations, shifting from negative to positive impacts on society, environment, and economy.