In response to a growing demand for analysis of executive compensation, GovernanceMetrics International (GMI), a New York-based corporate governance research provider, says it is making its corporate compensation research available as a stand-alone product.
GMI’s Summary CEO Compensation Reports and Pay Alignment Rankings (PAR) compare what companies pay their CEO with the total return the companies provide their shareholders. GMI covers 1,775 U.S. companies, including the members of the Russell 1,000, the S&P 500, the S&P mid-cap 400 and the S&P small-cap 600.
“In the last year, the interest in executive pay has just skyrocketed,” says Howard Sherman, chief executive at GMI, who cites the misalignment of compensation and performance at a number of companies and the government’s efforts to set guidelines for executive pay.
In particular, institutional investors are readying themselves for the likelihood that an investor vote on executive compensation, the so-called say on pay, will be mandated for all U.S. companies, Sherman says.
While say-on-pay isn’t yet required, companies and their big investors are already discussing the issue, Sherman says. “Large U.S. shareholders are really looking for as many analytical tools as they can muster to prepare for these discussions.”
Sherman says customers pay $2,000 for the first 10 companies and $200 for research on each additional company.