Pay practices that indicate excessive appetite for risk, poor relationship between pay and performance, and companies’ inabilities to use sound performance measures when determining executive compensation are some of the reasons why more than one-fifth of S&P 500 companies get a failing grade in their executive compensation scorecards. In the inaugural study compiled by executive compensation research firm, Governance Metrics International, 102 companies out of 456 companies in the S&P 500 group were rated as high-concern companies based on their pay practices.
Topping the list of worst scoring companies on GMI’s scorecards are Abercrombie & Fitch, Moody’s Corp., Aetna, Nabors Industries, Medtronic, Zimmer Holdings, Prudential Financial, Constellations Brands, Teradyne, and Yahoo!
