2017: Fitzpatrick Voted For Legislation That Would Have Repealed
Significant Portions Of Dodd-Frank, Including Repealing The Pay Ratio
Disclosure Rule. In June 2017, Fitzpatrick voted for the Financial
Choice Act. According to NPR, "House Republicans voted Thursday to
deliver on their promise to repeal Dodd-Frank --- the massive set of
Wall Street regulations President Barack Obama signed into law after the
2008 financial crisis. In a near party-line vote, the House approved a
bill, dubbed the Financial Choice Act, which scales back or eliminates
many of the post-crisis banking rules." The vote was on passage. The
House passed the bill by a vote of 233 to 186. The Senate took no
substantive action on the legislation. [House Vote 299,
6/8/17; NPR,
6/8/17;
Congressional Actions, H.R.
10]
Legislation Repealed A Rule Requiring Companies Release A
Comparison Between Its CEO And Its Average Employee. According to
the Washington Post, "The bill would also eliminate rules meant to
rein in Wall Street pay and force companies to release how much
chief executives earn compared with their average employees, a
potentially embarrassing disclosure." [Washington Post,
6/9/17]
2015: The SEC Approved A Rule Requiring Most Public Companies To
Disclose The Ratio Of Their CEO Pay Compared To Its Employees.
According to the New York Times, "After a long delay and plenty of
resistance from corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission
approved in a 3-to-2 vote on Wednesday a rule that would require
most public companies to regularly reveal the ratio of the chief
executive's pay to that of employees. Representatives of
corporations were quick to assail the new rule, which will start to
take effect in 2017, saying that it was misleading, costly to put
into practice and intended to shame companies into paying executives
less. But the ratio, cropping up every year in audited financial
statements, could stoke and perhaps even inform a debate over income
inequality that has intensified in recent years as the wages of top
earners have grown far more quickly than anyone else's." [New York
Times,
8/5/15]
Economic Policy Institute: CEO-To-Worker Compensation Is Higher
Than It Was In The 60's, 70's, 80's Or 90's. According to the
Economic Policy Institute, "From 1978 to 2014, inflation-adjusted
CEO compensation increased 997 percent, a rise almost double stock
market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.9
percent growth in a typical worker's annual compensation over the
same period. The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, 20-to-1 in 1965,
peaked at 376-to-1 in 2000 and was 303-to-1 in 2014, far higher than
in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s." [Economic Policy Institute,
6/21/15]