• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, April 12, 2013

Reflecting the company’s less-than-stellar year in the financial performance department, Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth took a 26% cut in total compensation for 2012, according to the company’s just-issued proxy statement. Company CFO Frank Mergenthaler took a 16% cut in total remuneration, according to the document.

Still, both executives remain hugely comfortable. Roth’s compensation for last year totaled $9,663,294, while Mergenthaler’s amounted to $3,829,662. In both cases, however, the cuts put their total 2012 compensation packages below what they received two years earlier in 2010.

Word of the compensation cuts come as investors are increasingly demanding greater accountability from top executives and are being more vocal about what they see as inflated compensation packages.

Relative to its peers, Interpublic Group had lackluster 2012 business results. Revenue was down 0.8% versus 2011 to $6.96 billion and net income dropped 16% to $464 million. Organic revenue growth for the year was 0.7% -- the lowest of the major ad holding companies.

But pay packages are also an issue at companies that turned in better numbers than IPG’s. WPP -- with organic growth last year of nearly 3% -- and its shareholders are in a continuing dialog over CEO Martin Sorrell’s pay. He received a compensation package of about $11 million in 2011. 

Last year, investors vetoed that package in a non-binding vote. Omnicom disclosed earlier today that CEO John Wren took a 4% cut in total compensation last year, despite the company’s double-digit income gain and relatively high organic revenue growth.

An Interpublic rep declined to comment on the executive compensation cuts.

Separately, the New York City Comptroller’s Office is expanding its efforts this year to get holding companies to publicly disclose EEOC filings, which it argues will aid diversity efforts. It has filed resolutions to be voted on at the upcoming Omnicom and Interpublic annual meetings. Last year, a similar resolution from the city at the Omnicom meeting was voted down.  

Like Omnicom, Interpublic is urging shareholders to vote against the proposal, arguing that the EEOC reports “contain highly sensitive information that helps provide us with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The release of this information would provide a plethora of facts for our peers that could put us at a competitive disadvantage as relates to them.”

IPG did cite some diversity related statistics, including that minorities comprise 15.6% of “officials and managers” positions in the U.S., up 61% from 2005.