Shareholders to get a binding say on current year executive pay?

Key Points:

The UK proposals seek to give shareholders a binding vote on executive remuneration for the current financial year.

Australia has followed the UK in many things – including the current non binding shareholder vote on executive remuneration for listed companies. Recent proposals announced by the UK Secretary of State for Business, which will make the UK shareholder "say on pay" regime binding, signal that there could be more to come for the Australian market in this area.

Currently both the Australian and UK "say on pay" regimes give shareholders the ability to signal their views on historical executive remuneration, but the shareholder vote to approve the remuneration report is non-binding.