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- THE WEEK, Page 24BUSINESSForced Disclosure
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- New SEC rules require corporations to come clean on pay packages
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- Starting next year, highly paid corporate executives are
- going to have a lot of explaining to do. Under new regulations
- adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, companies
- will have to disclose in unprecedented detail how much their top
- executives earn, as well as tell stockholders how those pay
- packages were determined. The rules are the latest effort in a
- movement by stockholder groups and politicians to curb excessive
- pay and perks. Shareholders at 43 corporations, including IBM,
- Bell Atlantic and Chrysler, challenged CEO compensation this
- year. And at least two pay-disclosure bills have been introduced
- in Congress.
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- The new SEC rules will require companies to publish charts
- in their annual reports that compare salaries with stock
- prices. Companies will also have to assign values to the stock
- options that executives receive. Although the regulations will
- provide shareholders with more ammunition to fight what they
- consider to be unwarranted compensation, many critics say the
- new law doesn't go far enough. They want to give shareholders
- the right to determine the actual pay of top executives. Others
- want to get at it by limiting corporate tax deductions for
- excessive salaries.
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