A new amendment to the executive bill restricting the salary of a CEO to only 30 times the average wage of a regular employee of the same company is being pushed by the Greens into the government.

The Greens proposed similar modifications in January, with Greens leader Bob Brown advocating a cap of $5 million at that time.

These efforts are in response to the Government’s desire to pass laws that would permit stockholders to obtain greater influence over executive remuneration packages, with rules that would place a company board up for re-election if pay packages are rejected twice in a row by 25% of investors.

The supposed bill passed the House of Representatives yesterday and has now pushed to the Senate.

Brown related to the Australian Financial Review the new bill cannot restrict salaries and that introducing a wage cap will be a "good incentive to keep employees' wages at a fair level".

The effect would mean the more a company pays its employees, the more money its CEO can receive.

"We think the bill is not strong enough and we are looking at amendments to cap CEO's salaries at 30 times above the average wage of a company's employees. It provides a good incentive to keep employee's wages at a fair level," Brown said.

The Government may be forced to side with the Coalition on this issue in the Senate if the Greens will not eat humble pie. This would also mean the administration would have to accept an amendment that would decrease the power of shareholders.

The Coalition introduced an amendment yesterday that would observe executives put up for re-election only after 25% of total stockholders vote against a remuneration package, rather than just 25% of those stockholders who vote.

Secretary to the treasurer David Bradbury said such modification would mean that if less than 50% of stockholders voted at a yearly general meeting, then the present laws "can never work".

The Government may be forced to accept such a proposal if the Greens continues calls for a salary cap amendment.