The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule in 2013, required under the Dodd-Frank Act, which would require companies to disclose a pay ratio of their chief executive officer’s compensation to the median total compensation of all of its employees (for the last fiscal year).
The SEC would not prescribe a specific method for organizations to use when calculating a pay ratio, and companies would have the flexibility to determine the median annual total compensation among their employees and make reasonable estimates when calculating elements of and employees’ total compensation. In addition, in the proposed rule, “employee” is defined as any employee who is full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal, and non-U.S; employed by the company or any of its subsidiaries; and employed as of the last day of the company’s prior fiscal year.
Companies would be required to disclose the method they used to identify the median and total compensation as well as any amounts that are estimated.
Source: Securities and Exchange Commission (2013). SEC Proposes Rules for Pay Ratio Disclosure
