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For the press release referenced in the article, which includes a list of companies that had voluntarily adopted "Say on Pay" voting as of March 1, 2010, see
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Has 'Say on Pay' Reached a Tipping Point?
Seven more large-cap firms have agreed to hold advisory votes on executive compensation, according to “say on pay” proponents.
The
companies include Capital One, which included a management-sponsored
vote in its preliminary proxy statement for its April 29 annual
meeting. Morgan Stanley has reached a tentative agreement with
proponents to conduct a pay vote this year, according to Calvert Asset
Management, while U.S. Bancorp has told Walden Asset Management that it
will hold a 2010 advisory vote. All three firms held mandatory pay votes
last year when they were participants in the U.S. government’s Troubled
Asset Relief Program (TARP), and received more than 90 percent support
for their pay practices.
Fifth Third Bancorp has agreed to continue holding advisory votes after
it exits the TARP program, proponents said. Another recent adopter is
consumer products firm Colgate-Palmolive, which
announced it would hold its
first advisory vote on May 7 and then every two years. In addition, Sun
Trust Banks and Honeywell International have recently reached agreements
to hold advisory votes, proponents said.
Overall, at least 56 U.S.-based companies have held voluntary “say on
pay” votes or have agreed to do so, according to data collected by
RiskMetrics Group’s ISS Governance Services unit.
“It’s been a natural evolutionary process for companies to embrace a relatively new idea like ‘say on pay.’ But now we are reaching the tipping point,” Timothy Smith, senior vice president at Walden, said in a press release this week. “Less than a year ago, only a handful of companies had adopted the vote. Now more than 50 companies have agreed to do so, with more stating a higher comfort level with the concept.” |
