NetworkWorld: Perks Shrink, But Tech CEOs Aren’t Ready to Fly Coach

Executive perks are a lightening rod for shareholder criticism, and many tech companies are cutting back on CEO extras to avoid a negative outcry.  But some perks — like personal use of corporate jets — are proving hard for executives to relinquish.

A big driver of perk reductions is the new “say on pay” rule, which requires public companies to seek approval of their compensation plans via shareholder vote.

“Say on pay” has been “a very scary development” for most compensation committees, says Nora McCord, managing director at Steven Hall & Partners, an executive compensation consulting firm based in New York.  While the result of a say-on-pay vote is non-binding, “It has served to ratchet up even further the focus on compensation issues in general, and most specifically, the hot-button issues like perks,” McCord says.