More Than 165,000 Petition Signers Demand SEC Finalize Rule Requiring CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio Disclosure

In petitions delivered today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), more than 165,000 Americans demanded that the commission finally implement the proposal requiring companies to disclose their CEO-to-median worker pay ratio which was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.

The petition signatures were gathered by the AFL-CIO, CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen. (The petitions and their signers may viewed or downloaded here.)

"It's been five years since this proposal was passed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, but no action has been taken to enforce it. The time to implement this proposal is long overdue and the American people are tired of waiting," said Heather Slavkin Corzo, AFL-CIO Director of Office and Investment.

Wall Street and big corporations continue to lobby against this reform that will increase transparency and accountability to the investing public.

"Dodd-Frank requires the SEC to issue a forceful CEO pay-disclosure rule, but once again the SEC is simply refusing to do its job under Mary Jo White's leadership," said Murshed Zaheed, Deputy Political Director at CREDO Action. "White and the other commissioners need to remember that they work for the American people - not Wall Street - and implement this basic transparency rule now."

"We have seen a small number of financial elites handcuff bipartisan common sense reform that many House members and Senators have worked hard to implement. It's time for the SEC to do its job and implement this rule," said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division.

"The SEC has a statutory obligation to complete this rule - and a strong public-policy reason to do so as well," said Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform. "The pay ratio is information that shareholders should have on how a company is organized; there is no good reason that implementation of this simple and clear Dodd Frank requirement should be delayed."

"Americans have made it very clear--they want an economy that works for all workers and not just for CEOs. They want a level playing field. The grassroots movement to demand a new and transparent economic fairness has been growing all year and now over 165,000 Americans have joined in calling on the SEC to act," said Justin Krebs, Campaign Director at MoveON.org.