Chevron

Annual meeting: May 27, 2015 Total disclosed pay for Chevron CEO John Watson of $24,017,303 an increase of 8%. The following concerns are reasons shareholders should consider voting against the compensation advisory vote:

• Pay at Chevron is significantly higher than average and higher than many peers. According to the AFL-CIO, the average, $13.5 million total compensation for CEOs in 2014. CEO pay at Chevron is 77% higher than that already-high average.
• Half of the so-called “performance” shares vest even if the company ranks four out of five against the selected comparator companies.
• It appears the “performance” shares may vest even if stock price goes down, as long as the stock price at peers goes down as well. As the company puts it, they “provide . . . incentive even during periods of adverse equity market conditions.”
• Watson’s increase in pension value for the single year was $7.4 million – up from $3.8 million in 2013. Assuming a typical work week, for every hour he worked he received $3,500 in pension benefits. With salary of over $1.8 million and bonus of over $3 million (not to mention many millions of dollars in stock and option awards), Watson should be able to adequately save for his retirement without shareholders footing the bill. The current value of just one of several of Watson’s guaranteed retirement vehicles is over $35 million.

This year a new platform allowed individuals who own Chevron through mutual or pension funds to weigh in on an As You Sow proposal to return cash to shareholders rather than using it to fund development of high cost, high carbon reserves. In less than two weeks, the VoteYourPension.org platform has been used by over 15,000 participants of pension funds and clients of mutual funds to contact an impressive 1066 funds in 44 countries.