Washington, D.C., January 17, 2006--In a dramatic move, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will require companies to fully disclose all details of the compensation packages for top executives.
The new requirements are expected to go into effect this spring, in plenty of time for the 2007 proxy season. Beyond official salary, CEOs and executives occupying several other top corporate positions will for the first time have to reveal how much they receive in the form of stock options, perks, retirement and health benefits and other compensation.
An article about the SEC decision in The New York Times cited statistics from two Washington-based organizations showing that although the pay of the average worker has, given inflation, stood still at $27,000 since 1990, compensation for CEOs rose four-fold, from about $3 million to nearly $12 million over the same years.
