Investor Outrage Reaches Record Levels

This spring will serve as a litmus test of shareholder outrage, kicking off the first season of annual meetings since investors learned of stunningly big executive payouts at the likes of GE(GE Quote) and Tyco(TYC Quote). Such revelations have sparked growing indignation against the backdrop of a three-year stock slump, prompting shareowners to brandish a record number of reform proposals.

As of the end of March, with another two months to go in the main proxy season, U.S. shareholders had already filed 912 proposals with public companies, the most seen by the Investor Research Responsibility Center. To put that in perspective, shareholders filed 802 measures in all of 2002.

Big institutional investors such as pension funds and labor unions are homing in on outsized corporate pay. They've already scored high-profile victories at Tyco and Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote), where shareowners passed measures to make executive severance packages subject to their approval. Under law, such proposals are advisory only. But boards that ignore rising investor anger could themselves become targets in future elections. ...