Shareholders may not hurt exec pay
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Steve Chiotakis: Here in this country today, New York Senator Charles Schumer is expected to introduce a bill that would rein in executive pay. The bill would let shareholders vote every year on whether they think company bosses are getting paid too much. Jill Barshay reports.
Jill Barshay: Shareholders in companies that took federal bailout money got to vote on pay this year.
Rich Ferlauto is a director with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. He’s been fighting for more shareholder influence on executive pay. But:
Rich Ferlauto: At this point, there’ve been no dramatic votes rejecting a pay plan.
Ferlauto says large investors dominate shareholder meetings. But they tend to side with management.
Ferlauto: It’s now up to shareholders, particularly the institutional shareholders like mutual funds, to step up to the plate to use that power responsibly and begin to rein in pay.
British shareholders got the right to vote on pay in 2002. Ferlauto says that stopped executive pay from running out of control there.
In New York, I’m Jill Barshay for Marketplace.
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