good news…

Posted on Thursday 29 March 2012


Union To J&J Shareholders: Vote No On CEO Pay
Pharmalot
By Ed Silverman
March 28th, 2012

For the second consecutive year, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees pension fund is urging shareholders to vote against ratifying an executive compensation proposal for Johnson & Johnson. Once again, the issue is the amount of money given to outgoing ceo Bill Weldon in light of several scandals involving manufacturing gaffes, product recalls and government probes.

The move comes after roughly 40 percent of J&J shareholders last year voted against a so-called Say on Pay proposal. Since then, J&J attempted to revamp its compensation calculations, but AFSCME – which is a beneficial owner of 19,868 J&J shares – maintains that J&J pay practices continue to result in excessive compensation that is not tied to performance and is also out of whack when comparisons are made.

For instance, over a recent one-year period, AFSCME charges Weldon’s target pay ranked third in total shareholder return versus a group of peers selected by J&J that ranked eighth. Over a three-year time span, Weldon’s target pay ranked fourth, but J&J ranked ninth in total shareholder return. And his five-year target pay ranks above J&J peers, but total shareholder return ranks below its peers.

What exactly did Weldon receive? His 2011 pay totaled nearly $27 million, down from $28.7 million the year before, including a $3.1 million bonus, which amounted to a 55 percent increase from 2010 [see this]. Meanwhile, AFSCME charges that expenses associated with numerous recalls and product liability litigation – notably, the Risperdal antipsychotic and DePuy hip implants – helped shave consolidated earnings by $4.5 billion…

Some things are good news, and this is one of them. We’ve all been reporting on the obscene amounts of money being paid to J&J CEO William Weldon [finally…, gulp…] including a retirement package that would run a small country. Somebody is going to try to do something about it. That would be a grand idea. I stand by my comment Wednesday, "He should really be spending some quality time playing Mahjong with Bernie Madoff, wearing a blue shirt marked with his inmate number in magic marker."
  1.  
    March 29, 2012 | 1:53 PM
     

    This is good news. Shareholders do have responsibility for more than just picking up their dividends.

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