Do we need a law like this in Singapore? I think we do! But remember, who are the CEOs of the Singapore companies and who have allowed them to be paid such high and unequal salaries? European Union (EU) leaders have called for limiting bankers’ bonuses to no more than their base salaries and for laws like Switzerland’s in all 27 EU countries. The Netherlands and Denmark already require executive compensation to be approved by shareholders, and the Dutch government is drafting a law that would limit golden parachutes to a mere 75,000 Euros. The conservative Spanish government imposed measures to give shareholders a binding vote on bankers’ pay and cut executive compensation by up to 35 percent in companies where the state holds an ownership stake. Even the Tory government of David Cameron in Britain is pushing legislation that would curb executive pay for poorly performing companies and enable shareholders to contest executive compensation. And former Chinese Premier Wen Jinbao left directives for the new government on limiting pay for top officials of state-owned companies. So, while the US moves toward disclosing executive pay and European governments are banning golden parachutes, limiting executive bonuses, and imposing stricter shareholder control over CEO compensation, some say that these measures still do too little. The most radical proposals are to actually set limits on executive pay as a multiple of the pay of either the median worker or the lowest-paid worker in the firm. For example, Swiss activists have demanded that executives be paid no more than 12 times what their lowliest worker gets.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 04:56:03 +0000