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The report referenced in the article below was prepared by The Corporate Library, stating that it was based on  "preliminary proxy voting data collected by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)."  According to this report, votes for 76 "Say on Pay" proposals in 2008 averaged 41.7%, compared with  41.0% for the 53 proposals presented in 2007.  However, comparable data for 27 companies that had "Say on Pay" votes in both years showed that 17 had declining levels of voting support in 2008 and only 8 showed increasing support, with 2 showing "no effective change."

A copy of the report can be downloaded, with the publisher's permission:

 

Investment News, July 22, 2008 article

 

'Say on pay' fervor flags in firms


July 22, 2008

 

 

Support for a shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation is losing steam in the financial services sector, according to a report released today by The Corporate Library of Portland, Me.

While shareholder support for “say on pay” proposals is growing in general — to 42% this year from 41% in 2007 — the proposal lost support at eight banks and wirehouses that voted on such initiatives in both years.

Those firms are Capital One Financial Corp. of McLean, Va., Citigroup Inc. of New York, JPMorgan Chase & Co. of New York, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. of New York, Morgan Stanley of New York, U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis, Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., and Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco.

The average support for say on pay proposals at those companies decreased 4.9% year-to-date.

A dip in the amount of compensation for the chief executives of those companies may be a factor in the decline, Damion Rallis, research associate and author of the report, said in a statement.

“It is possible that these facts have played a role in the decreased shareholder support for ‘say on pay’ at these financial institutions,” he said.

The Corporate Library is an independent research firm that tracks corporate governance and executive compensation information.

Its database has information on more than 3,200 companies.

 

 

 

 

This Forum program is open, free of charge, to anyone concerned with investor interests relating to shareholder advisory voting on executive compensation, referred to by activists as "Say on Pay." As stated in the posted Conditions of Participation, the Forum's purpose is to provide decision-makers with access to information and a free exchange of views on the issues presented in the program's Forum Summary. Each participant is expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants.  It is a Forum rule that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

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