August 28, 2019
Big Banks (Still) Answering to Congress for Big Pay Ratios
– Liz Dunshee
The House Committee on Financial Services is continuing to use pay ratio disclosure to hone in on human capital management issues at big banks. Yesterday, Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) issued this press release to recap what’s happened in recent hearings. It leads with a chart that highlights CEO pay and pay ratio at 8 banks. Based on that information, it says that Committee Democrats will continue to push for these steps:
– All megabanks should increase their minimum wage to at least $20 per hour by the end of the year, and to at least a “living wage” in the next two years so that all workers have enough to meet their basic needs, including food, housing, and clothing
– All boards for megabanks should consider ways to narrow excessive CEO-to-median worker pay ratios
– Financial regulators should finalize meaningful executive compensation rules that curb inappropriate compensation practices
Also yesterday, SEC Commissioners Rob Jackson & Allison Herren Lee issued this joint statement about the “modernization” amendments to Reg S-K that were proposed several weeks ago – expressing concern and soliciting comments about the proposal’s “principles-based” approach to human capital disclosure.