“In the future, C.E.O.'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, which had supported the initiative.

In March, Swiss voters approved by a wide margin an initiative that broadened shareholders’ power to limit executive pay. Popular support for the measure was perhaps surprising in a generally conservative country that has one of the highest standards of living in the world and unemployment of just above 3 percent. While Switzerland is not a member of the European Union or the euro zone, it has close ties to both. Still, its economy has been resilient despite the crisis surrounding it.

Switzerland also has a long history of social equality, and many citizens were offended by cases like that of Daniel Vasella, the former chief executive of the pharmaceutical company Novartis, who this year demanded a $78 million severance package in return for a promise not to share his know-how with any competitors. In the face of a public outcry, Mr. Vasella withdrew the demand and has since retired.

The image of Swiss business also suffered after the suicide in August of the chief financial officer of Zurich Insurance, Pierre Wauthier, who left a suicide note complaining of intense pressure to perform from the company’s chairman, Josef Ackermann. The Swiss authorities later determined that Mr. Ackermann, the former chief executive of Deutsche Bank, had not done anything inappropriate, but the episode fed perceptions that business leaders were pursuing profit at any cost.

The 1:12 initiative was proposed by the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party and supported by the Green Party. As recently as October, the measure appeared to have a chance of passing, but support flagged during the last month in the face of determined opposition by business groups.

The Schweizerischer Gewerbeverband, a business group that led opposition to the measure, financed an advertising campaign that argued that approval would amount to the government’s dictating salaries. The group also argued that the measure would hurt tax receipts and lead to more bureaucracy.

A poll conducted at the beginning of November on behalf of Swiss public television by Gfs.bern found that only 36 percent of those questioned were likely to vote for the measure, down from 44 percent a month earlier. The same poll found that 54 percent of voters surveyed in November were likely to vote against the measure, up from 44 percent a month earlier, when opponents and supporters were evenly divided. The rest were undecided.