The agency is conducting a study of compensation practices among nonprofits and has promised to examine those groups in which administrators are paid unusually well.

Making interest-free loans for executives to acquire stock (often forgiven if the bet does not pay off) is another dubious compensation practice.

Mr. Berman recalls when he realized how wacky corporate compensation practices had become.

(Her mother later went to law school and has a workers' compensation practice.)

The reason may well have little to do with compensation practices - and much more to do with bigger economic trends, however.

Moreover, they said, market forces drove compensation practices in recent years, when competition for superstar chief executives was intense.

Congressional interest in nonprofit compensation practices has also increased.

While investors often become upset about executive pay, they rarely use compensation practices to guide buy or sell decisions on stocks.

Company representatives found another fault, saying the rules failed to give employers enough flexibility to change their compensation practices as the economic climate changes.

Forcing the company to justify its compensation practices, he said, may result in better pay decisions.