It’s time for action on CEO pay disclosure
The Securities and Exchange Commission
Runaway executive pay had a lot to do with the wave of reckless behavior on Wall Street that produced the financial and economic meltdown of 2008. In one very modest response, the Dodd-Frank Act told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to write a rule requiring banks and other public companies to disclose the ratio of their CEO’s compensation to their median worker’s pay.
After taking more than five years to complete the pay-ratio rule, the SEC may be trying to undo it. Why? Wall Street and other big corporations don’t want us to know just how huge that gap is.
Wall Street has long complained about the supposedly heavy burden of fulfilling this requirement. Because apparently, it’s really hard work to count up all the millions of dollars their CEOs and executives are making. This complaint was ridiculous the first time around. It still is. They simply don’t want us to know just how enormous the gap is.
We deserve to know how much more CEOs make than a typical worker. Tell the SEC and the Trump Administration to show some backbone and stand up to Wall Street.Sponsored by
To:
The Securities and Exchange Commission
From:
[Your Name]
Last August, the Securities and Exchange Commission wrote a rule implementing Congress’s direction that public companies disclose the ratio of their CEO’s pay to the pay of their median worker. It would be outrageous to delay or reverse that now.
Americans need and deserve more information about corporate pay practices. Such data helps shareholders guard their pocketbooks against self-seeking executives and it helps us all evaluate the long-term soundness of companies. That’s because excessive compensation at the top encourages risky practices up and down the line - in addition to inhibiting teamwork and reducing employee morale and productivity. There is simply no excuse to give big corporations a pass about being transparent about their pay practices.