The Advisors' Blog

This blog features wisdom from respected compensation consultants and lawyers

June 4, 2014

Survey Results: Pay Ratios

Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com

I have posted the survey results regarding how companies are preparing now for the SEC’s upcoming pay disparity rulemaking (compare to the same poll from two years ago), repeated below:

1. At our company, the board:

– Does not consider internal pay equity when setting the CEO’s compensation – 64%
– Does consider internal pay equity as a factor by comparing the CEO’s pay to all employees – 8%
– Does consider internal pay equity as a factor by comparing the CEO’s pay to other senior executives – 36%
– Does consider internal pay equity as a factor by comparing the CEO’s pay to a formula different than the two noted above – 3%

2. Ahead of the SEC’s mandated pay disparity disclosure rulemaking under Dodd-Frank, our company:
– Has not yet considered how we would comply with the rules – 74%
– Has begun considering the impact by assessing whether we could comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank but we have not yet tested statistical sampling – 29%
– Has begun considering the impact by assessing whether we could comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank including assessing whether we could use statistical sampling – 12%

3. As one of the companies that have assessed the impact of the SEC’s mandated pay disparity disclosure rulemaking, our company:
– Believes we could comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank without too great a burden – 78%
– Believes we could comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank but it would be too burdensome unless statistical sampling is allowed – 3%
– Believes we could comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank but it would be burdensome even if statistical sampling is allowed – 25%
– Believes we wouldn’t be able to ever comply with the precise prescriptions in Dodd-Frank – 0%

4. In your own opinion, do you think that statistical sampling would have too high a potential for manipulation or material error:
– Yes – 84%
– No – 5%
– I don’t have an opinion – 19%

Please take a moment to participate in this “Quick Survey on CEO Succession Planning” – and this “Quick Survey on Distributing Proxy Materials Via E-mail to 401(k) Plan Participants.”