The pay gap between men and women has rightly become an important topic of conversation in offices and boardrooms across the country. Despite the efforts of some companies to address the disparity, women last year earned 82 percent of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center report. The subject was the focus of…
Yawn. The Pearl Meyer Comp Consulting Firm Calls The CEO Pay Ratio “A Big Fat Dud”
It’s no surprise that a firm that is itself compensated by telling corporate executives that they are worth a lot of money is calling the first-ever pay ratio disclosures “a big fat dud.” Of course they think that. Those numbers, required by the Dodd-Frank post-meltdown legislation and finally made public for the first time, make…
Starbucks to Eliminate Plastic Straws Following Strong Investor Support for As You Sow Proposal — As You Sow
Most news reports about the announcement from Starbucks that they will stop using single-use plastic straws overlooked the importance of a shareholder proposal on the issue: As You Sow is pleased to learn via news reports of Starbucks’ commitment to phase out plastic straws at all stores by 2020. A shareholder proposal filed by As…
What do companies really have to reveal when a CEO is ousted? – The Washington Post
Jena McGregor writes in the Washington Post about the delicate obfuscation in CEO departure announcements:<P Barnes & Noble’s announcement on Tuesday that its CEO, Demos Parneros, was being terminated, gave investors some important information: He would not get a severance. His firing was not related to “any potential fraud.” He had violated a company policy and…
Does Sustainable Investing Lead to Lower Returns? – Barron’s
Here’s what ESG integration is really about: From an investor’s standpoint, a sustainable company is one positioned for long-term success, one whose management understands and addresses short-term risks and innovates to exploit long-term opportunities. ESG data are a means that can enable an investor to understand a company’s strategy, corporate purpose, and management quality, at…
Foreign investors see value in Japan Inc’s good governance – Nikkei Asian Review
As Japanese companies work to improve corporate governance, they are attracting more foreign investors looking to cash in on the changed business climate.Statistics released by the Tokyo Stock Exchange and other Japanese bourses show that the ratio of foreign ownership in the country’s stocks remained almost unchanged in the fiscal year through March 2018 from a…
Asset Owners Increasingly Rely on Sustainability Indicators
Morgan Stanley’s Sustainable Signals report finds that asset managers are increasingly relying on sustainability indicators. The survey polled 118 public and corporate pensions, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth entities, insurance companies and other large asset owners worldwide and gathered insights about trends, motivations, challenges and implementation approaches in sustainable investing. By rounding out the sustainable investing…
Passive Investors = Active Owners
Good to have substantiation and support for something we’ve been saying since the early 1980’s. Our key insight is that although index funds are locked into their investments, the shareholders who invest in these funds are not. Like all mutual fund shareholders, investors in index funds can exit at any time by selling their shares…
State Treasurers Urge SEC to Maintain Investors’ Right to Sue – Bloomberg
State treasurers from California, Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are joining a push to persuade U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to uphold the agency’s longstanding position against mandatory shareholder arbitration clauses.In a letter dated July 2, the treasurers led by California’s John Chiang expressed concern about reports that the SEC…
Comptroller Stringer, NYC Funds: Unprecedented Disclosure of Corporate Boardroom Diversity Following Groundbreaking Campaign : Office of the New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds today announced that after less than a year, the groundbreaking “Boardroom Accountability Project 2.0” (BAP 2.0) campaign, an initiative which pushes for greater corporate board diversity and transparency reforms, has accomplished unprecedented engagement with more than half of the 151 major…
