COLUMBUS, Ga., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Disability insurer Aflac Inc. said Wednesday it would become the first major U.S. firm to let shareholders vote on executive pay packages.
Aflac's decision affecting the top five executives' pay will not be binding, the company said. But it would be hard for the company to ignore the wishes of a shareholder majority, analyst Dawn Wolfe of Boston Common Asset Management told USA Today.
The Aflac board set 2009 for the start of the advisory votes because that will be the first year executive pay tables in corporate proxy statements will contain three years of data, reflecting new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules, the Columbus, Ga., insurer said.
"Our shareholders, as owners of the company, have the right to know how executive compensation works," chairman and chief executive Dan Amos said. "The board's action is in keeping with Aflac's longstanding pay-for-performance compensation policy and our commitment to transparency at all levels."
Activist shareholders have pushed companies to adopt compensation resolutions amid increasing anger over outsized executive pay packages.
