Xero's shareholders have delivered a stinging rebuke to its board, with more than 70 percent voting against the remuneration report at its annual shareholder meeting.The remuneration report is the section of a company's annual report explaining how its directors and senior executives were paid, and why, including salaries, bonuses and share-based incentives.It follows controversy over a revised remuneration structure for chief executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, lifting her target total remuneration from US$15.2 million to US$18.5 million.Xero's share price has roughly halved over the past year, despite a strong operational performance, while Singh Cassidy recently sold the remainder of her direct shareholding, worth about US$1.9 million, which the company said was to meet personal tax obligations.Xero said she continued to hold about 586,000 restricted stock units already granted under time-based and performance-based schemes.The resolution itself is only advisory and non-binding and will not stop Singh Cassidy's revised pay structure coming into effect.Xero said the major proxy advisers had recommended shareholders vote against the remuneration report.It said concerns included incentive payments not being reduced to reflect the shareholder experience, too much of the chief executive's equity being tied to continued length of service, rather than performance, and Singh Cassidy's recent share sale.Xero People and Remuneration Committee chair Susan Peterson said poor share price performance had "materially influenced" the vote outcome, and the board respected and understood "the strength of this feedback".Xero said the voting outcome and comments from proxy advisers and investors would be considered when setting future remuneration strategy.Peterson told shareholders the board understood frustration over the company's share price performance, but said Xero needed to pay competitively to attract and retain global technology executives.She said the board would introduce a minimum shareholding requirement for the chief executive, requiring a stake worth five times annual base salary within three years.The shareholder backlash comes as Xero also faces criticism from some customers after it hiked its prices, and over its handling of major platform outages.