Resource Library Say on Golden Parachute

The 2022 U.S. golden parachute vote failure rate rose to 15.6% from 11.8% in 2021 as the median CEO golden parachute value increased to $12.9M from $7.9M in 2021.

Golden parachutes became common in the hostile takeover years of the 1980s, when executives worried about losing their jobs to corporate raiders. The golden parachutes provided executives with lump sum payments, immediate vesting of equity awards and continued participation in benefits following a change in control. Media reports and debacles about failed financial service companies in the 2000s raised public ire over these arrangements. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and...