Institutional investors sent a letter to Verizon Communications last week urging the company to give shareholders a greater say in the pay packages given to executives. A vote in May narrowly came out in favor of asking Verizon to adopt a say-on-pay policy to help rein in executive compensation.

"More than half of the people who you represent on the board of directors sent you a message that we want more transparency and accountability in executive pay at our company," the investors said in the October 17th letter. "As institutional investors, we are concerned by the disconnect between executive pay and corporate performance at Verizon and other public companies ... If you truly intend executive pay to reward superior performance, serious adjustments to Verizon's pay practices are in order."

The institutional investors involved in this ordeal include the North Carolina state treasurer, Connecticut deputy treasurer, the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, the City of Cincinnati Retirement System, Walden Asset Management, Marianist Province of the United States, and Boston Common Asset Management.