Semler Brossy’s most recent “2021 Say on Pay & Proxy Results,” based on its review of voting results for 674 Russell 3000 companies for this year’s proxy season as of May 13, 2021, shows the significant impact of a negative ISS recommendation on say-on-pay proposals, with the average vote results for companies that received an ISS “Against” recommendation approximately 36% lower than for companies that received an ISS “For” recommendation compared to the historical average of 24% - 32%. The firm attributes four of the 22 say-on-pay failures thus far this season to COVID-19-related pay actions. According to its Investment Stewardship Q1 2021 Global Quarterly Report, which we reported on last week, BlackRock voted against 15% of management compensation proposals for the Americas region during the first quarter ending March 31, 2021, compared to 7% during the same period last year.
Of the 44 social proposals and six environmental proposals that have thus far gone to a vote, majority shareholder support has been garnered for nine and three of such proposals, respectively. The firm notes significantly higher support – often more than 70% - for proposals involving EEO-1 demographics reporting, diversity and inclusion, board diversity, political contributions/lobbying, and certain environmental-related topics.
Access additional resources on our Proxy Season 2021 page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!