Swiss voters decisively rejected imposing strict limits on how much corporate executives could be paid in relation to their lowest paid workers.  The fact that it got as far as a referendum in business-friendly Switzerland illustrates rising popular resentment toward corporate excess.

The measure was known as the “1:12 Initiative” because it would have barred executives from earning more than 12 times as much as the lowest-paid employees at their companies.  But it might as well have been called the “2:1” bill, because that’s about how much it failed by – 65 percent of Swiss voters rejected it in Sunday’s ballot.

“People have concerns about the way modern capitalism works, but they still prefer a free-market economy,” said Daniel Kubler, an associate professor of political science at Zurich University.

Parliament did not support the measure.  Neither did the Federal Council, the eight-member panel that governs the alpine nation.

For now, voters are okay with Switzerland’s high standard of living and three percent unemployment rate.  But supporters say that the 1:12 Initiative brought attention to exorbitant executive pay, especially for banks that took taxpayer funded bailouts while continuing to pay huge executive bonuses even when they performed poorly.

“In the future, CEO’s and boards of directors are going to have to think very carefully about how they justify multimillion-franc compensation,” said the Swiss Social Democratic Party.

Just not this time.