TOP EXECUTIVE PAY MUCH EASIER TO FIND

In the past, finding out what the CEO or any of the other top few executives of a company made required piecing together data from different documents into a sort of puzzle. It took time and patience, and you never felt certain that you had not missed something. Now, thanks to new laws that require clear disclosure of the pay of the top five executives of publicly traded companies, the information can be found easily and instantly. USA Today lists the total compensation for the CEOs of the largest 150 companies in a simple chart today.

SHAREHOLDERS STARTING TO USE THE POWER OF THE VOTE

Most business students are surprised to learn that shareholders have very little power in most publicly traded companies. They aren't allowed to dictate CEO or other executive pay, they aren't allowed to nominate their own board candidates in many cases, and there is little they can do to stop boards that are too cozy with executives from creating severance packages that are far too generous (see Nardelli at Home Depot and McKinnell at Pfizer). This might be the year that some of that changes. USA Today reports that shareholders are prepared to flex their muscles this year and possibly make big changes shaking up the corporate landscape. On their radar:

1. Being allowed to nominate their own slate of board candidates, not merely vote for the slate put forward by the company.
2. Being allowed to vote for executive compensation in a non-binding manner, as is required in the United Kingdom.
3. Requiring more than 50% of the vote to be elected to the board. Currently, in many companies, unopposed directors can be elected with a tiny percentage of the vote.
4. Getting more of a say in global warming issues. There are 42 global-warming-related resolutions up for vote this year.

AFLAC TO ALLOW SHAREHOLDERS TO VOTE ON EXECUTIVE PAY

Aflac will become the first major U.S. company to let shareholders vote on executive pay. The vote will be for the pay packages of the top five executives and will be non-binding. In the United Kingdom, the law requires that shareholders vote on executive compensation causing CEO pay to be more in line with performance. Shareholders in the U.K. rarely vote down proposed pay packages, which when presented to shareholders are much less generous than many U.S. executive pay packages.

USA Today

EXECUTIVE PAY BECOMING A SERIOUS ISSUE

How does a $210 million severance package sound? $200 million? Well, Robert Nardelli did a poor job of running Home Depot and got pushed out of the executive suite recently, but was handed the $210 million king's ransom on his way out the door. Henry A. McKinnell did perhaps an even worse job of running Pfizer. His reward? A cool $200 million.

Things have gotten so bad on the executive pay front that even President Bush has recently weighed in on the issue. In a speech on Wall Street in January he said that corporate board members "need to pay attention to the executive compensation packages that you approve."

From the AP:

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to introduce legislation on the issue. Frank said in a January speech at the National Press Club that high CEO pay is "not just a matter of envy. It has reached a point where it has some macroeconomic significance."

Frank pointed to research done by Harvard professor Lucian Bebchuk showing that compensation of the top five officers at the country's public companies between 1993 and 2002 totaled about $250 billion — nearly 10 percent of aggregate profits. CEO pay grew by a median 11.29 percent in 2005, according to The Corporate Library, which tracks governance, compensation and performance.