General Electric shareholders are denying Larry Culp a $ 230 million payment

General Electric shareholders voted against Larry Culp’s $ 230 million payment package on Tuesday, extending a wave of activism for investors over large bonuses in U.S. companies this year.

According to the first results, 57.7% of shareholders rejected the payment packages of the industrial conglomerate for their directors.

Investors opposed the fact that Culpen’s salary plan was rewritten last year in a way that would make it easier to earn bonuses during the pandemic. GE management extended Culp’s contract and reduced the share price, earned share bonuses and nearly doubled the share he would receive.

When the stock market roared late last year, Culp was blocked $ 47 million bonus shares and the payment could be a maximum of $ 230 million if it stays in the company as early as 2024.

Last year, the awards paid to GE executives received 73 percent shareholder support. Following a vote on Tuesday – which was highly recommended, not binding – GE said it was “disappointed” with the results and would continue to contact shareholders with the salary issue.

Adding to GE’s investor anxiety, Culp said Tuesday that the company will not increase dividends in the near future. “We need to continue to make structural improvements to build a stronger GE before the dividend increases,” he said.

Support for average shareholders in U.S. executive pay packages has dropped to at least 2016 levels this year, according to Equilar salary data company. According to ISS Corporate Solutions, S&P 500 companies have now denied five executive payments, including IBM and Starbucks.

Typically, they pay the executive stamp of investors, as most plans receive more than 90 percent support.

“I don’t think we’ve seen a situation where big and significant companies like this fail,” said Matteo Tonello, CEO of the international think tank at the Conference Board. He said rejections of payment packages usually occur in medium-sized or small businesses, and said that the failure of large companies to fail bonus votes “has no precedent.”

More controversial votes are expected this month from shareholders along with Amazon, ExxonMobil and others.

Among Russell’s 3,000 companies, the rate of pay-vote failure is twice as high as it currently is in 2020, according to salary advisor Semler Brossy. The average payment support is “well below last year’s average,” the company said in its April 29 report.

Payment plans that have been rewritten in a pandemic to make it easier to earn bonuses are the main reasons companies are rejecting payroll votes this year at Courtney Yu Equilar.

“We will see a steady trend of more companies getting less than 70 percent of the vote this year,” he said.