US SEC proposes scaling back rules on executive pay disclosure

By Douglas Gillison

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s top regulator on Friday proposed scaling back requirements for publicly traded companies to disclose detailed information about compensation for executives and board members, according to a statement.

The rules aim to turn back what agency officials say has been the creeping accumulation over time of requirements for detailed investor information analyzing the ways companies’ chief executives are paid.

Investor advocates and lawmakers have pointed to soaring compensation, with pay for C-suite figures growing in recent decades far faster than that of the workers they employ.

During this year’s midterm elections, some Democratic candidates cited these disparities. 

Paul Atkins, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said the new rules would help limit such disclosures to what investors actually need to know.

Under the proposal unveiled on Friday, covered companies would have to disclose information about pay packages for only two executives in most cases – the chief executive and chief financial officer – and raise the threshold for reporting workplace perks from $10,000 to $150,000.

The new rules would also cut the number of disclosure tables provided to investors during proxy votes and shrink the population of workers used to determine the “median employee” whose compensation is compared to that of top executives, among other changes.

Better Markets, an advocacy organization which calls for tougher oversight of Wall Street, said last year that CEO pay has risen more than 1,000% over the last 50 years – with the median S&P 500 pay package hitting $17 million in 2024 – while worker pay in that period had only climbed 24%.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)