Starting in 2018 [Broc’s correction], US companies will have to report the ratio of their CEO’s pay to the average employee’s salary to the Securities and Exchange Commission. But why wait? Salary-data aggregator Glassdoor put together a ranking of pay ratios for companies in the S&P 500 based on the median employee pay data it has and CEO pay data from company filings. At the top: David Zaslav of Discovery Communications with an astounding ratio of 1,951-to-one, followed by the chiefs at Chipotle (1,522), CVS (1,192), and Walmart (1,133).
The biggest takeaway? We have no idea what these ratios really look like. Estimates are wildly inconsistent. And it’s unclear how much better things will be under the new rules since companies will get to choose how they calculate employee pay.
A recent analysis from Payscale, also an online salary aggregator, came out with an entirely different ranking and vastly lower ratios. Larry Merlo of CVS tops its list, but with a ratio of 422-to-one, compared to 1,192 from Glassdoor. Payscale’s highest estimated ratio would only make the 37th spot on Glassdoor’s ranking.
A separate Bloomberg analysis computed average worker pay in a different way, using publicly available data, and came up with a whole other set of estimates and rankings. Bloomberg puts the average salary at JP Morgan at $124,959, compared to $65,344 from Glassdoor. Consequently, Glassdoor’s estimate of the pay ratio is twice as high.
To make it more confusing, Glassdoor isn’t universally higher. Bloomberg has ex-McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson in first place with a pay gap ratio of 644 to one. Glassdoor puts the ratio at 422.
Some caveats are in order for data from sites like Payscale and Glassdoor. Their salary data is self-reported by employees, and not entirely reliable. And as Glassdoor notes, CEO pay varies highly from year to year, due to things like stock options and bonuses. Employees tend to underreport such earnings to Glassdoor, and the distribution of people who report on the site may be skewed in terms of pay or seniority. Some companies have already disputed the average salaries reported by Glassdoor.
Here’s a note that I received from a member in response:
According to this Reuters article, the Glassdoor study (which I couldn’t find anywhere on Glassdoor’s website) used “CEO compensation figures reported by 441 S&P 500 companies through Aug. 14 and Glassdoor.com user reports about salaries at those companies. Only companies for which Glassdoor had 30 or more worker salary reports were included. The data could be skewed if workers under-counted tips or bonuses, Glassdoor said.” Anyone using Glassdoor or Payscale stats as reliable is irresponsible – but some journalists obviously are (here’s another example).
As it typically does a few months ahead of the event, our conference hotel in San Diego – the Manchester Grand Hyatt – is nearly sold out. We have procured an overflow hotel next door – the San Diego Marriott Marquis – for which you can obtain comparable room rates if you reserve online thru this page. But you’ll want to try the Manchester Grand Hyatt first – obtain a discounted rate there by following these instructions. This hotel relates to our popular conferences – “Proxy Disclosure Conference” & “Say-on-Pay Workshop” – to be held October 27-28th in San Diego and via Live Nationwide Video Webcast.
Those conferences are paired with the audio archives that are up from yesterday’s “Pay Ratio Workshop.” You can register at anytime to gain immediate access to these archives and also gain access to our October pair of conferences. Register Now! Here’s a list of the archived 9 panels for the “Pay Ratio Workshop”:
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
The Course Materials alone are worth the price of admission. But this 4-hour audio-only event is paired with our much lengthier “Proxy Disclosure Conference” & “Say-on-Pay Workshop” that are being held in October. Register Now! Here’s a list of the 9 panels for the “Pay Ratio Workshop” (& the agendas for all three events):
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
In the wake of the pay ratio rules being adopted, get a handle on what you need to do now during tomorrow’s “Pay Ratio Workshop.” The Course Materials for tomorrow include 22-pages of annotated model pay ratio disclosures (in Word to facilitate your starting point!) – and 128-pages of detailed analysis of executive pay disclosures made during the 2015 proxy season. The Course Materials alone are worth the price of admission.
But there’s more! This 4-hour audio-only event is paired with our much lengthier “Proxy Disclosure Conference” & “Say-on-Pay Workshop” that are being held in October. Register Now! Here’s a list of the 9 panels for the “Pay Ratio Workshop”:
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
In the wake of the pay ratio rules being adopted, you need to get a handle on what to do now – as there are tasks you should be accomplishing way ahead of your disclosure obligation. Tune into our “Pay Ratio Workshop” next Tuesday, August 25th – an audio-only event (whose archive will be up immediately if you can’t attend live). Register Now!
Here’s a list of the nine panels that will span over four hours of practical instruction on Tuesday:
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
Yesterday, the SEC’s pay ratio rules were published in the Federal Register – so they have an effective date of October 19, 2015. That’s not the compliance date however…
In the wake of the pay ratio rules being adopted, you need to get a handle on what to do now – as there are tasks you should be accomplishing way ahead of your disclosure obligation. Tune into our “Pay Ratio Workshop” next Tuesday, August 25th – an audio-only event (whose archive will be up immediately if you can’t attend live). Register Now!
Here’s a list of the nine panels that will span over four hours of practical instruction on Tuesday:
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
In the wake of the pay ratio rules being adopted, this is one of the topic du jours. And it’s one that will be tackled during our “Pay Ratio Workshop” next Tuesday, August 25th during the panel entitled “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout.” Register Now! Here’s a list of the 9 panels:
– “Overview: The Final Rules”
– “Getting Ready for Compliance: Sampling & Other Data Issues”
– “Streamlining Your Compliance Efforts”
– “Board Presentations: What To Tell Boards Now”
– “Disclosure: Handling the Transition Period”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: US-Only Workforces”
– “Parsing Model Disclosures: Global Workforces”
– “Parsing a Recent Pay Ratio Disclosure”
– “How to Handle PR & Employee Fallout”
In the meantime, check out this memo by Towers Watson that provides survey data regarding employee attitudes towards pay and covers the possible influence of pay ratio on employee perceptions…
Here’s a blog from Michael Levin of “The Activist Investor”:
Everyone goes after share repurchases lately, as depriving companies and even the US economy of needed investment funds. We investors know better. The latest in the long series of criticisms, in Bloomberg Business this week, asserts that buybacks serve mostly to increase CEO pay unfairly. At several big companies (IBM, Cisco) they reviewed, exec comp depends in large part on EPS or share prices. So, share repurchases increase EPS or share prices by removing shares from the float.
This thinking leads corporate defenders, big conservative institutional investors, and even some pension funds that typically advocate for corp gov reforms to urge companies to curtail repurchases. Alas, this thinking responds to the wrong problem. Instead, structure CEO pay properly. Why link it to EPS, which companies can influence through creative accounting, or to share price, which varies with factors far beyond the control of executives? Pay executives based on the value they create relative to the capital needed to create it. Let’s use return on investment, return on equity, economic value added, or other similar measures, ok?
As noted in this 20-second video, Cap’n Cashbags is keeping a close eye on the pay levels of the other CEOs in his industry (stay til the end for the blooper!):
