Shareholders need to be educated especially when voting on proxy statements. I personally vote against executive compensation when the stock has been performing poorly.
Look at Larry Ellison of Oracle. His pay keeps going up and it is a double digit percentage. I know (through a friend who works for them) that none of the rank-and-file workers have not got a pay raise, not even a cost of living adjustment for inflation In the company I work for, they always call an all hands meeting and in strong terms, encourage us to vote with the executive board especially on executive compensation. I always vote against it since executives get double digit percentage increases while us rank-and-file workers get something like 2%, barely to keep up with inflation.
Now, our executive board is pushing for "diversity" (i.e. gay crap) throughout all corners of the company.
good for you.....There have been too many reports about executives who make huge bonuses, even when the company is in the crapper