The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that the average approval percentage for advisory votes on executive compensation -- also known as "say on pay" -- was 92.14 per cent this year, the highest level since the pandemic year of 2020. The Globe's David Milstead writes that among those large companies, only one failed to get at least 50-per-cent approval: Open Text, which got only 25.1 per cent of its shareholders to vote "yes." Most large Canadian public companies conduct say-on-pay votes, which allow shareholders to express a non-binding opinion on a company's pay practices. Major proxy advisory services such as ISS and Glass Lewis have their own formulas for evaluating compensation systems and produce a recommendation on how shareholders should vote. Open Text's shareholder vote, which was held in September, was its third consecutive fail. The company received a 29.52-per-cent result in 2023 and a 44.95-per-cent result in 2022. ISS, which recommended a "no" vote on Open Text's say on pay, said the company's total shareholder return has underperformed the S&P/TSX Composite Index on a one-year, three-year and five-year basis, while Open Text underperformed peers on a one-year and five-year basis.