SiliconBeat

Advocates of having public companies allow their investors to express their opinion on the compensation packages provided to their top executives enter the 2009 proxy season with a head of steam.

Such “say-on-pay” shareholder resolutions have been filed at more than 100 U.S. corporations so far this season, according to a network of more than 70 organizations established in 2007 known as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

“We’re pleased that a number of companies in the United States already have responded and their Boards have agreed to institute an” advisory vote on executive pay in 2009, said Timothy Smith, a senior vice president at Walden Asset Management, one of eleven asset management firms in the network, which includes public pension and labor funds, foundations, religious investors, retiree organizations and individual investors.

“We expect more companies to step forward this winter and declare their support such as Hewlett-Packard did last week,” said Smith in a statement.

While HP did put out a press release on Jan. 16 saying that its board had decided to allow shareholder to “determine whether the company should conduct an annual nonbinding advisory stockholder vote related to executive compensation,” the vote on whether to allow a vote on compensation won’t take place until 2010, meaning that HP’s shareholders won’t be able to express satisfaction or otherwise with executive pay at HP until 2011, at the earliest.

“We have adopted this procedure because executive compensation involves important issues relating to corporate governance,” said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer.

Important, but not evidently urgent. HP’s timing allows the company to dodge the issue following a very good year for its CEO.

Among the other companies being targeted with say-on-pay proposals by the group are Apple, Intel and Yahoo.