"Better Not Cry: Reasonable Executive Compensation Changes May Be Tolerated. But Crocodile Tears Won’t Be." from Clermont Partners provides a "What to know" and "What to do" rundown on the views of ISS, Glass Lewis, BlackRock, and State Street, and associated suggested action items for companies to increase the likelihood that COVID-19-prompted changes to executive compensation will win their support in the absence of an ordinary course corporate performance environment. The overarching theme is that although the proxy advisors and the largest institutional investors have expressed understanding and a greater degree of tolerance for compensation changes based on the impacts of the pandemic, the tolerance is qualified by certain core principles and expected practices that each of these organizations has articulated, with robust disclosure as a common thread.
See our recent report: "Incentive Pay Discretion Framework & Considerations" and additional information & resources on our Executive Pay, Institutional Investors, and Proxy Advisors pages. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!