SEC requires companies to reveal CEO-vs-worker pay gap

Federal regulators have approved a long-delayed rule requiring companies to reveal the pay gap between CEOs and their employees.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted on Wednesday to order most public companies to disclose the ratio between their chief executives' annual compensation and median, or midpoint, employee pay.

The 3-2 vote, with the two Republican commissioners dissenting, culminated years of heated public debate over one of the most controversial rules the agency has put forward in recent years. The SEC received more than 280,000 comments on the issue since it floated the proposal two years ago, and lobbying by business interests against the requirement was intense.