Witnessing a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) annual shareholder meeting is not to be taken lightly. The four-hour meeting was more like an entertainment venue and circus more than anything, and in between the festivities, the chairman of the board and other executives slipped in the proposed shareholder proposals for consideration by the proxy holders in attendance. This year's meeting featured 13 proposals, with 11 of those being submitted by smaller and much larger institutional shareholders.In the midst of covering this, it was amazing to see that 6 of the 11 shareholder-submitted proposals featured the theme of limiting executive and/or board compensation or executive/worker pay equity proposals. In other words, some shareholders want workers to be paid more and executives less, even though these executive pay packages are generally based on peer group measurements -- or so the board of the world's largest retailer would have you think.
Closing Bell: Does The Market Ever Drop? (TSL, PALM, FDX, NKE, TEVA)
Ready for a $2.50 Blueberry Waffle at Starbucks?
EU Is Not the United States of Europe
