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Are shareholders gender neutral? Evidence from say on pay

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  • Canil, Jean
  • Karpavičius, Sigitas
  • Yu, Chia-Feng

Abstract

This study investigates whether gender pay inequality in the top management team, measured by gender pay slice (GPS), is a factor in Say on Pay (SoP) voting as required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Since CEOs are known to play a distinct role in SoP voting, we treat CEOs separately and define GPS as the fraction of total non-CEO executive compensation captured by females. Controlling for numerous factors including CEO pay and CEO gender, ISS recommendations, pay composition, firm performance, and other firm characteristics, we find robust evidence of a negative relation between non-CEO GPS and SoP votes, but this gender-based difference in SoP voting does not extend to the CEO. Taken together, our findings imply that gender equality in terms of SoP voting is still an issue for female executives at the sub-top level.

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  • Canil, Jean & Karpavičius, Sigitas & Yu, Chia-Feng, 2019. "Are shareholders gender neutral? Evidence from say on pay," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 169-186.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:58:y:2019:i:c:p:169-186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2019.05.004
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    4. Canil, Jean & Karpavičius, Sigitas & Li, Shihe & Yu, Chia-Feng, 2022. "Say on mobility:Do CEO outside opportunities affect shareholder say on pay?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    5. Ahmed, Shaker & Ranta, Mikko & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2023. "Facial attractiveness and CEO compensation: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    6. Bedford, Anna & Bugeja, Martin & Ghannam, Samir & Jeganathan, Davina & Ma, Nelson, 2023. "Were CEO pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic merely symbolic? Shareholders' reaction and outrage," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
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    8. Jain, Shalini Sarin & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam & Bhatia, Sandhya, 2021. "Closing the gender gap in top management teams: An examination of diversity and compensation parity in family and non-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Say on Pay; Executive compensation; Shareholder voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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