The new rules on having to disclose all sorts of perks in the proxy statement have been frustrating for a lot of companies. The value of all of those airplane miles, club memberships and home security systems can get tricky to calculate. But some companies have figured out a quick strategy to simplify their lives — just cut the perks.

In this 8K filed yesterday by Sherwin-Williams (SHW) the company announced that it is cutting back on the goodies offered to executives beginning Aug. 1.

So what are the top five giving up? Well, it turns out not much. Parking is out, along with the annual physical, personal liability insurance, basic financial planning, home security system and club memberships for personal use. Presumably job-related club memberships are still OK.

But just when you start feeling sorry for the deprived executives, the company notes that it’s bumping up base salaries $25K per person. The problem is that, according to Sherwin-Williams’ last proxy, the perks are worth less than the raise. The canceled benefits for CEO Christopher Connor add up to about $22K. For COO John Morikis it’s more like $14K.

So the top brass stands to gain a little in the deal. But the company still gets a gold star for performing well financially and still showing a willingness to cut the extras that some executives have become a bit to addicted to.

Note: this post was supposed to run on Friday, but never made it due to Michelle making her flight to SF with only 5 minutes to spare. I didn’t even have time to pick up food before the flight and living on Blue Chips and Diet Coke for 5 1/2 hours made me pretty cranky (and in need of protein) when I arrived.

Posted in Gold Stars

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