Swiss CEO Pay Limits Rejected By Voters

A show of reason from Swiss voters.

A Young Socialist-backed proposal to limit executive pay to twelve times the pay of junior employees was voted down by Swiss voters by a vote of 65 percent.  The executive pay limits far exceed the disclosure-based limitations of Dodd-Frank and SEC regulations.

According to the Bloomberg article, at least five of Europe’s highest paid execs are in Switzerland.

Swiss Flag
Swiss voters reject strong limits on executive pay.

The leader of the Young Socialist party vowed to continue the fight to:

  • Send Swiss companies fleeing to other jurisdictions
  • Severely water down the talent pool willing to work in Switzerland or for a Swiss business
  • Turn the pool of executives working for Swiss companies into easy prey for headhunters in competing companies in other countries
  • Make Switzerland toxic to anyone who wants to start a business and hire employees

There may be constraints on UBS leaving Switzerland, but you can bet its CEO (or those talented enough to be in line for executive positions) has plenty of means of escape from this sort of income restriction.  However, do you think Glencore (giant international commodities trading firm) can’t structure its business away from these restrictions?

These are the types of consequences that result from navel gazing over “income equality” and generally looking to more successful people with envy and anger rather than looking to more successful people and trying to learn about how to become successful.

Disagree?  Ask the French.

The Cogent Shareholders Have Spoken. Executive Compensation Not Approved. The Results, Well, The Same, I Guess.

Dodd-Frank getting the results! Not many results as ink was spilled and money was spent soliciting a non-binding vote ignored by management, but those are still results.

At its 2011 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the shareholders of Cogent Communications Group, Inc. did not approve the executive compensation. Did Cogent learn its lesson?

At its 2013 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the shareholders of Cogent Communications Group, Inc. did not approve the executive compensation. Will Cogent learn its lesson?

In each of 2011 and 2012:

  • Base salary for the CEO, CFO, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Legal Officer and highest paid VP increased;
  • Total compensation decreased from 2010 to 2011 but skyrocketed in 2012 over and above 2011 levels. In the case of the CEO, total comp went from about $4.0 million in 2010 to $8.8 million in 2012.

I guess we’ll see next year if this is what the shareholders had in mind.

Form 8-K – 2011 Annual Meeting Results
Form 8-K – 2013 Annual Meeting Results
Proxy Statement – 2013 Annual Meeting