When a company receives criticism about its practices, a typical defense is to cite a rising stock price as justification of its pay. If total shareholder return is up, the theory goes, stockholders have no right to complain about what might otherwise look like outsize pay at their companies.
Gretchen Morgenson writes the Fair Game column for the Sunday Business section.
While this pay posture is understandable, it raises a question: Should a rising stock price inoculate top executives from criticism over their pay? To more and more experts in corporate finance and pay issues, the answer is no.
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