Another SEC Member Favors Dropping Pay Disclosure Plan

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Annette Nazareth on Wednesday said she favored dropping a proposal that would force companies to disclose what top employees earn.

Nazareth’s opposition, echoing comments made by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a Times story Tuesday, was another sign that businesses might be making progress in a campaign to forestall the proposal.

The SEC staff proposal would, for the first time, require companies to divulge salaries and other pay for as many as three nonexecutive employees, in addition to compensation for five top managers. Star directors such as Steven Spielberg at DreamWorks SKG and on-air talent such as Howard Stern at Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. are among those whose pay packages could be disclosed.

“I would favor deleting the provision,” Nazareth, one of two Democrats on the five-member commission, said in an interview. “I think it’s possible that it would have unintended consequences, and I don’t think there’s a strong argument to be made for the relevance of the data.”

In comments to the SEC, business groups zeroed in on the proposal, criticizing it as more disruptive than illuminating. Nazareth said she was influenced by those comments.