Publications

The Votes Are In on 'Say on Pay' in 2011

September 2011
Financial Executive

Beginning this year, most public companies are required to submit named executive officer compensation to a non-binding shareholder vote — known as a "say-on-pay" (SOP) vote — every one to three years, as determined by the board, following a separate "say on frequency" vote.

This year's results have been much better than many companies expected. Through mid-July, shareholders returned negative SOP votes at only 37 companies (less than 1.5 percent of those holding SOP votes), mostly due to the level of executive pay relative to shareholder returns.