The “say on pay” provision of the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act takes effect beginning in January. Already, public companies and their compensation committees are scrambling to mitigate the risk of a potential “no on pay” vote. Even though a “no” vote is nonbinding (i.e., companies are free to shrug it off), it could create investor relations and reputation issues.

Here’s a possible preview of things to come. The article looks at some of the reasons why Motorola, KeyCorp, and Occidental Petroleum failed to receive majority shareholder support on say-on-pay votes (regarding compensation packages of named executives) this spring.

Say on pay votes are not new. more