June 25, 2020 Executive Compensation Shareholder Voting, SOP, and Proxy Results Reports

2020 Say on Pay Report Including Executive and Director Compensation Responses to Covid-19

This week’s report recaps the 2020 voting trends, which reflected no change in the average Say on Pay vote support for Russell 3000 companies in 2020, despite a significant number of companies disclosing mid-year pay actions. Additionally, the report includes a spotlight study on a Proctor & Gamble environmental shareholder proposal, and an additional page on 2020 and 2019 environmental and social proposals that received greater than 50% vote support.

We expect average vote support and failure rate in 2021 to be more reflective of COVID-19’s impact as shareholders better understand the span of actions taken by companies covering Fiscal 2020 compensation. That said, companies will still be expected to provide a heavy burden of proof to justify compensation levels and programmatic changes as we move into the 2021 proxy season. Please visit our COVID-19 resources, Incentive Design Changes in Response to COVID-19, for more information.

2,396 Russell 3000 companies held Say on Pay votes in 2020. Average vote support was 90.5%, and 56 companies (2.3%) failed. There were 13 social proposals and six environmental proposals that received greater than 50% support. This report also tracks Director Election and Equity Proposal vote results.

Contributors

Austin Vanbastelaer

Justin Beck

Todd Sirras

Previous Volumes

This report has many volumes. Previous volumes are available for download:

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