Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank are voted in favor of management's recommendations. (See Broken Windows & Proxy Vote Rigging – Both Invite More Serious Crime ). I generally vote against pay packages where NEOs were paid above median in the previous year but make exceptions if warranted. According to Bebchuk, Lucian A. and Grinstein, Yaniv ( The Growth of Executive Pay ), aggregate compensation by public companies to NEOs increased from percent of earnings in 1993-1995 to about 10 percent in 2001-2003.