In the midst of an improving economy, a robust IPO market and a selective M&A landscape, the corporate world in 2014 leaves us with the usual variety of year-end ambiguities …

 • CEO pay

One thing I anticipated addressing remains unresolved. Perhaps by the time you read this, the SEC will have disgorged, several years late, its disclosure regulation comparing the salary of public CEOs to the median workforce salary.

This 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requirement was congressional reaction to perceived runaway CEO compensation. Other mandatory disclosures and advisory “Say on Pay” votes had done little to halt higher CEO comp.

The ratio of CEO earnings to the earnings of a worldwide workforce, with workers living in emerging economies, should be irrelevant to investors. Better to leave analysis of excessive CEO earnings to the proxy advisory firms.

No wonder the SEC still has not issued final regulations.

To read the full text of this article by Duane Morris partner Stephen M. Honig, please visit the New England In-House website.