“Calls for the resignation of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso got a whole lot louder Tuesday,” writes Susanne Craig in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“The heads of four of America’s largest public pension funds — two in California, one in New York and one in North Carolina, representing combined assets of $401 billion — asked Mr. Grasso to step down. They asserted that his $139.5 million deferred-pay package is too much, particularly amid efforts by U.S. companies to shore up their governance standards as the nation’s stock markets recover from an unprecedented period of corporate fraud.”

” ‘This pay package is out of line and it’s part of a sickness of culture in this country where too many at the very top have forgotten what’s right and fair in the American economy and what average workers make in this country,’ argued California state treasurer Phil Angelides, who along with the heads of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (or Calpers) and the head of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System expressed their dismay to Mr. Grasso in a letter Tuesday. They asserted that it would take an average American 5,200 years working a 40-hour workweek to receive the money Mr. Grasso has received.”

“Separately, New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, trustee of New York’s pension fund, the nation’s second largest, behind Calpers, said Mr. Grasso’s ability to fight corporate corruption and improve corporate governance has been ‘shattered’ by the pay flap. In interviews Tuesday, Messrs. Angelides and Hevesi said NYSE has a credibility problem that now extends to its role as a regulator of securities firms.”

“Mr. Grasso, through a spokesman, reiterated that he plans to serve out his contract, which expires in 2007. In recent days, Mr. Grasso has argued that NYSE directors set his pay. ‘Each year when I learn of the amount I am receiving, I respond with the same four words: “I’m blessed. Thank you,” ‘ he said at a news conference last week.”

“The public scoldings represent an important stress point for Mr. Grasso and the NYSE. Until now, he and the exchange have faced pressure from constituencies closer to home. Regulators, NYSE floor traders and some NYSE directors were angered at last week’s disclosure that Mr. Grasso, in addition to the $139.5 million pay package, was owed an additional $48 million — a sum Mr. Grasso decided to forgo following concerns from his board. The Securities and Exchange Commission has demanded more information about the process in which Mr. Grasso’s pay was set. Some NYSE seat holders are circulating a petition calling for a special meeting to discuss ways to change NYSE management. And, as reported Monday, several NYSE directors, primarily those representing big Wall Street firms, have privately discussed, among other things, the possibility of asking Mr. Grasso to resign.”