Last year Goldman Sachs paid its five most senior employees a collective $69.5 million dollars. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein may have claimed that he was doing “God’s work,” but four orders of nuns beg to differ.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia, and the Benedictine Sisters of Mt Angel, are all listed on the new proposal to review the remuneration policies of Goldman Sachs. All four orders are investors in the company, according to The Guardian.
The nuns asked that “shareholders request that the board’s compensation committee initiate a review of our company’s senior executive compensation policies and make available a summary report of that review by 1 October, 2011,” reports the Guardian. Among their requests for the report are:
1. An evaluation of whether our senior executive compensation packages (including, but not limited to, options, benefits, perks, loans and retirement agreements) are ‘excessive’ and should be modified.
2. An exploration of how sizeable layoffs and the level of pay of our lowest paid workers impact senior executive pay.
3. An analysis of the way in which fluctuations in revenues impact: a) the company’s compensation pool; b) the compensation of the company’s top 25 senior executives; and c) the company’s shareholders.
Goldman Sachs has said it would resist the request.