Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI) shareholders recently voted to advise against the company’s compensation package for top executives.
About 52.6% of voting shareholders voted against the patient monitoring tech company’s handling of executive pay in what’s known as the Say-on-Pay vote, according to vote results of the May 26 meeting filed with the SEC yesterday. The vote comes on the heels of Say-on-Pay votes at Zimmer Biomet and Henry Schein in which support from investors was lackluster.
In fact, dozens of major U.S. companies — including JPMorgan, Intel and Coca-Cola — have faced shareholder rebukes over executive pay this year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper cited the trend as part of an overall increase in investor scrutiny of corporate governance — as well as social and environmental issues.
A Masimo spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
Because these are advisory votes, a corporate board doesn’t have to take action in response. Executive pay is not immediately affected — if ever. Still, Say-on-Pay votes give investors an opportunity to put the board and top executives on notice.
Masimo’s proxy statement actually showed mostly modest increases in executive compensation in 2021. Total compensation for CEO Joe Kiani, for example, was roughly $16.2 million — up nearly 4.7% from the year before. Kiani’s compensation included a roughly $1.2 million base salary and $9.0 million and $3.0 million in stock awards and option awards respectively.
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