It’s only year two of broadly-mandated “say-on-pay” votes by investors at U.S. public companies, but already questions are arising about whether the exercise is “working.”
Will shareowners veto more plans this year? Will proxy advisers grab even more influence? Will compensation continue to be contentious and perceived by many as unfair? Will more boards reach out to investors? What does the future hold? We could pull out a crystal ball to predict the outlook for say-on-pay, but in this case we don’t have to. The future can already be divined—by looking at startling recent developments in Britain, where advisory annual ballots on compensation policies have been in place since 2005. Warning: You are not going to like what you see.
