October 12, 2013
I support Dodd-Frank rule 953(b), which strikes me as being all about the intersection of pay equity and investor value.
The Dodd- Frank rule makes sense for investors and for companies. I read an article recently about the CEO of a company that hasn't 't done as well in the last year as it had in the past yet the CEO's pay was being DOUBLED. I read this article on the same day that a friend, who worked for the company, was going to work to find out if she would be laid off. The company had announced it would be laying off 4,000 workers. I suspect that the CEO's pay increase was MORE than the salaries of those 4,000 workers put together. This approach doesn't make a company healthier. It shouldn't inspire confidence in stockholders. It doesn't in fact make any sense.
American workers are more productive than ever, but, year after year, studies show working Americans earning less and less, even as CEO pay balloons and corporate profits soar.
Disclosing corporate pay ratios between CEOs and average employees will finally show which corporations are driving this trend, which siphons money away from investors, and into the pockets of CEOs. In 1990, senior executive pay absorbed 5 percent of corporate profits. Today, according to Government Metrics International, it absorbs 10 percent.
Fairer pay structures mean stronger companies and a stronger economy – both of which are important to me as a consumer and as an investor.
No doubt there are a select few who benefit from the status quo of keeping the pay disparities undisclosed. Stand firm, and implement the law as written.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Rebecca Davis
Cranford, NJ