O-Care executive compensation provision raked in millions

An executive compensation reform provision in ObamaCare has generated millions of dollars in savings since last year, according to a left-leaning think tank.The Institute for Policy Studies released a report Wednesday that found limiting tax deductions for executive pay at health insurance companies resulted in $72 million to U.S. coffers from the top 10 publicly held firms alone.
“This $72 million in savings from limiting pay-related deductions for just 57 executives is the equivalent of the cost of dental insurance for 262,000 Americans or the average annual health insurance plan deductible for 28,000 people,” the authors of the report wrote. “If the Obamacare executive pay tax provision applied to all major U.S. corporations, not just to health insurers, U.S. taxpayers would save $50 billion over the next 10 years — and deliver a major blow against CEO compensation business as usual,” they added. - By Ferdous Al-Faruque - 08/27/14 The Hill

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Florida pension fund says no to executive pay at Bloomin', TECO, Roper

Amid the record number of proxy votes cast by the State Board of Administration of Florida at corporate shareholder meetings this year, three votes stand out.
The SBA, which manages the assets of the Florida Retirement System and other funds, said no on advisory votes on executive pay at three of the biggest public companies in Tampa Bay.
Failure to closely tie pay to performance was the reason behind the no votes at Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) and at Roper Industries Inc. (NYSE: ROP), said Jacob Williams, corporate governance manager. - Margie Manning, Quality and Content Editor- Tampa Bay Business Journal

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Performance Pay Up, Options Down

Though not surprising, the latest research on executive compensation confirms companies are moving away from stock options and toward more performance awards as stockholders, shareholders, boards and the public cast ever-skeptical eyes on pay for pay's sake, not tied to actionable goals.

 

The latest analysis of compensation and benefits for CEOs at 240 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 from New York-based Mercer shows use of performance awards continues to climb. Performance shares, used by 41 percent of those companies in 2011, became a majority practice in 2013, used by 51 percent of respondents.

At the same time, the prevalence of stock options continued to fall in 2013, with just 25 percent of S&P 500 CEOs receiving option grants, down 10 percentage points since 2011.

 

"In practice, performance awards are more closely aligned to explicit financial or operational outcomes than stock options," says Ted Jarvis, Mercer's global director of data, research and publications. That said, though, "the performance measures and associated goals must reflect the company's strategic objectives for performance shares to be meaningful incentives." -Kristen B. Frasch, Human Resource Executive Online

 

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