About Session
In 2024, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company made $18.9 million in total compensation and 285 times the median worker. In one extreme example, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made over $95.8 million and 6,666 times more than the median employee. While executive pay continues to skyrocket and income inequality surges in the United States, institutional investors have, in large part, enabled excessive pay packages by voting with management on say-on-pay proposals. Overall shareholder support for management say-on-pay proposals averaged 90% among the S&P 500. Even Elon Musk’s trillion dollar Tesla pay package passed with more than 75% support from voting shares last year. Higher incentive awards have driven up total CEO compensation in the U.S. significantly when compared to executive pay practices in other countries. Why are investors approving pay packages that incentivize short-term, risky decision making and harm working people? How can investors better align their proxy voting to reflect their values?
Many ICCR members recognize income inequality and excessive CEO pay as systemic risks that investors must face head on to meet their fiduciary responsibilities and mission priorities. The Advancing Worker Justice program recently launched the Excessive Executive Compensation (EEC) working group to provide a learning forum for investors seeking to adopt or strengthen their own proxy voting guidelines and hold asset managers accountable for their Say-on-Pay and Equity Incentive Plan votes.
This session will explore why tackling excessive pay matters from the faith and values context, fiduciary and systemic risk arguments, and the role of public policy advocacy. We will introduce key themes of ICCR’s forthcoming investor statement on executive compensation and proxy voting best practices report. We will highlight company case studies of pay packages to watch for the 2026 proxy season, and the session will conclude with table talks for members to discuss strategies to leverage their proxy voting power to oppose excessive pay.