William Mccall – Nike shareholders on Wednesday rejected a proposal to tie executive compensation more closely to the wages that are paid at the company's contract factories in Asia.

Chairman Phil Knight, who made $1.7 million in salary alone last year, promised more improvements and independent monitoring of conditions at its Asian factories, where some workers make $20 month. "I think what is happening is that Nike has been made the poster boy of the global economy," Knight told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Memphis, Tenn.

Earlier at the meeting, a shareholder today asked Nike to boost its wages in Asia to improve the shoe giant's image and maintain its stock value. "Across the United States these days there are a lot of children who are not looking on Nike in a favorable fashion," John Harrington, a California investment manager, said at the shareholder's meeting.

Harrington introduced the proposal on behalf of Jeanne Henry, a Portland, Ore., shareholder, who last year told Nike Chairman Phil Knight that her 12-year-old daughter was boycotting the company because of its labor practices at contractor factories in southeast Asia.

Nike has been repeatedly criticized for the low wages and working conditions in its Asian factories, which the company has taken steps to improve.

Harrington said that Knight earned 5,273 times the annual pay of the average worker in Nike shoe factories last year. Average executive pay in Japan is about 16 times the average worker's, and in Germany it's about 21 times as large, he said. Harrington cited a survey that indicated the survival wage in Indonesia for a single female workers is $35 per month. The average Nike worker is paid 80 cents a day, or $20 per month.

The shareholder proposal calls for Nike to more closely link executive pay to financial performance. It notes that the company already links pay to performance, and that Nike has constantly improved labor practices.