On August 5, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted, by a three-to-two vote, a rule that will require most public companies to disclose, annually, the ratio of the median of the annual total compensation of the company’s employees to the annual total compensation of the company’s principal executive officer. Companies must comply with the pay ratio rule for the first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2017. As a result, companies with December 31 fiscal years will first be required to provide pay ratio disclosure, for the 2017 fiscal year, in their proxy statements for their 2018 annual meeting of shareholders.
Our colleagues in Covington’s Securities practice group have prepared a nice overview of the new rule, which you can view here.