Approximately a dozen major corporations including Sun Life and Potash Corporation have adopted a say-on-pay policy whereby shareholders have a non-binding vote on CEO compensation at annual shareholders meetings. The CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS business panel are enormously interested in the topic, as evidenced by their detailed verbatim responses. They are nonetheless far from united in their opinions about shareholders’ rights on the issue.

It appears as if they believe that shareholders should indeed have a final say on important matters but that shareholders may not have enough detailed understanding of how successful the company actually is to offer a fair-minded opinion on compensation.

Intriguingly, members of the business panel are more convinced that shareholders should have a say on Board compensation than on the compensation of CEOs and senior executives.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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