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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 15, 1992                   TAG: 9202170211
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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NEW RULES

MOST AMERICANS aren't so much interested in dragging down the rich as in having a chance to join them. But grass-roots ire seems on the rise about how well many corporate chief executives are making out. They're getting multimillion-dollar salary and perquisite packages, and often they're rewarded handsomely even if their companies have lost money.

Some politicians are making the fat cats a fat target. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., has introduced a bill to give shareholders more direct say on how corporate officers and board members are paid, and to require better disclosure of who gets what.

Inasmuch as the size of those packages has been splashed over the headlines, one might argue that shareholders already are aware. But Levin says they don't know enough because accounting rules allow companies' reports to disguise the true value of stock options, a big part of some executives' compensation.

Now the Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing changes in proxy voting rules that require clear explanations of compensation packages - including the value of stock or options the year they're granted. Also required would be comparisons in corporate performance for recent years, and changes in executive compensation.

Certainly, information - not the law's coercion - is the key to paring undeserved goodies from executives' wallets. The government ought not to get in the business of regulating private-sector salaries. But armed with all the data, shareholders should have options of their own - including the right to try to whistle the gravy train to a stop.

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