3M CEO Inge Thulin’s compensation in 2017 was $20.5 million—324 times the median 3M employee compensation of $63,338.
To address this large discrepancy, the USW 3M Council is sponsoring its first shareholders resolution at the company’s annual stockholder meeting on May 8, 2018 in Indianapolis, Ind.
The resolution is Proposal #5, “Setting Target Amounts for CEO Compensation,” and requests “that the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors take into consideration the pay grades and/or salary ranges of all classifications of company employees when setting target amounts for CEO compensation.”
This would be in addition to the peer group benchmarks (what other CEOs make) that the company uses to determine CEO compensation.
The 3M board of directors is mostly composed of former CEOs. Unsurprisingly, the board disagrees with the USW proposal. It claims that including the USW proposal would involve “significant time, cost and resource burden.”
However, the Security and Exchange Commission requires companies to reveal CEO pay ratios, so the USW proposal is no different from what 3M is required to do.
If you have stock in 3M, please consider voting “FOR” proposal #5. Voting instructions are available at www.investors.3m.com.