Apple Inc., at its annual meeting with shareholders, “passed a resolution in favor of an annual advisory vote by shareholders on executive compensation,” Scott Hillis reports for Reuters.
“The proposal had been opposed by the board of directors. It urged the board to put up to shareholders a nonbinding resolution each year regarding pay of top executives,” Hillis reports.
Full article here.
Earlier today, The Associated Press reported that Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. supported the “shareholder proposal that would allow holders to ratify executive compensation each year. Apple opposes that proposal, which was made by the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund in response to concerns about the Apple’s backdated stock option practices.”
Full article here.
Screw the unions. Everyone down to the lowest level.
I vote to double, no wait, triple Jobs annual salary.
I was at the meeting. Everyone gasped when they announced it passed.
They are going to cut Jobs’ salary down to 75¢/year?
I second the vote.
Crazy idiots. Jobs deserves more than his compensations given to him already. He works his tail off and saved this company from oblivion and gave us all the coolest stuff that only MS could dream off creating.
Right now, by almost any measure, Apple is doing very well: sales are way up, profits are way up. Except for one thing: the stock price stinks. And that is entirely the fault of “shareholders”. So they are the ones who are fscking up the whole thing.
I propose that anyone who wants to sell their shares has to have Board approval…
CAn anyone say…… “Special interests groups”. ????
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Why is everyone apparently so against the shareholders having a *non-binding* say in top executive compensation? And Steve Jobs is not the only top executive- I imagine that the proposal covers all of the C-level positions, and probably a few more to boot.
If Apple doesn’t want the shareholders to have a say in things, it’s simple enough to just buy all the shares back and go private…
This is one of the trade-offs for being a public company. If you don’t want the shareholders to have a say, don’t raise your capital from the public.
I’m an Apple shareholder, and I vote to increase Job’s salary from $1 to $100,000,000 per year.
+1 for what shiva said.
More companies should put executive review out for their shareholder’s approval. Personally, I don’t think Apple has committed any major malfeasance, but too many failing companies give their executives sweetheart compensation packages with golden parachutes. If you aren’t providing value to the shareholders, then you don’t deserve the pay.
I 3rd what shiva and alex said. Executive compensation, and it’s not just about SJ – (we all know what his base salary is), as shiva indicated, is out of control in America.
Boards in many large companies like Apple, are approving ridiculous salaries and amounts of options and benefits for some of the top level execs with no review by the shareholders who are financing the company. As shiva said, if you don’t want review like this, go private.
In the end, if the workforce on the front lines are aware of it, it can become a big negative, ultimately having the potential of impacting sales, service, momentum and belief in the company.
This happened recently at Home Depot, and Bob Nardelli is now the poster child for crazy executive compensation. Now, Home Depot is no Apple, but is still a relatively powerful corporation.
This Nardelli guy left the company with the lowest morale the company has ever had, gutted major rewards for workers in the stores, and left associates with little to no belief that senior leadership would ever ‘do the right thing’, one of Home Depot’s mantras. Yet he and his senior level group would still profit immensely every year, regardless of what they did or how the stock performed.
The first shareholder proposal to add this ‘review’ piece in was denied while Nardelli was in power, but was approved I believe after he left.
This is a good thing not a bad one. I’m all for paying people what they’re worth, but making crazy amounts of money, while the stock is tanking in a big way makes no sense. (And I’m not referring to Apple stock, but HD)
“They are going to cut Jobs’ salary down to 75¢/year?”
Now you’re confusing salary with compensation. Steve rakes in plenty of money from Apple
“I’m an Apple shareholder, and I vote to increase Job’s salary from $1 to $100,000,000 per year.”
He already makes more than that in total compensation. Are you proposing he takes a pay cut?
I agree with them, corp execs may way too much money for when their companies tank and get nice gold parachutes when they leave. Jobs returned apple to profitability and continues to do so, BUT, that does not make him exempt from the laws and SEC rules about back dating his stock. Clearly he knew what was going on or he isn’t really in charge.