Shareholders Demand Disclosure of UnumProvident Executive Pay

New York, NYA faith-based group of institutional shareholders are demanding that 21 major corporations, including UnumProvident, disclose the total compensation packages of their top executives and their lowest paid employees in a bid to expose pay disparities in healthcare companies.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) selected the 21 insurers, medical device makers and health care providers, many of whom represent the leading opposition to proposed healthcare reform legislation currently in Congress, to expose what they view as unfair business practices related to pay scale.

The Unum group is no stranger to controversy, having previously faced allegations that officers routinely denied long-term disability claims to focus on the company's profits. As the result of a recent settlement, Unum has agreed to reconsider more than 200,000 denied disability claims from the last nine years.

"Shareholders, the government, citizens and investors are increasingly concerned about seemingly out of control growth in compensation packages for top executives at U.S. corporations, including those in the health industry," claims ICCR Executive Director Laura Berry. "This can lead to particularly egregious disparities when it comes to health industry companies that are simultaneously fueling health care expenses, opposing needed health care reform in Congress and covering fewer and fewer Americans."