The directors of US Airways have awarded chief executive David Siegel a compensation
package with a potential value of nearly $11 million, even as the airline tries
to wring more pay concessions from its rank-and-file workers.
While chief executives generally saw larger base salaries and bonuses in 2003,
companies have developed stronger ties between CEO pay and performance, according
to a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting and the Wall Street Journal.
Compensation levels for corporate directors in the U.S. have increased significantly
over the past year, according to a recent study by the Hay Group, a human resources
and organizational consulting firm.
Prompted by the first profit shown in three years, directors of the Ford Motor
Co. have announced plans to reinstate a partial match on salaried employees'
401(k) retirement savings and to issue bonuses to 6,200 executives. Among those executives is CEO Bill Ford Jr., who chose to donate his bonus to company employees, for their children's college tuition.
Apple Computer Corp. paid chief executive Steve Jobs $1 in salary and no bonus
in 2003, Reuters reports. Jobs has received a $1 salary since 1998, a year after returning to the company he helped found.
A sharp increase in the value of unexercised stock options and a rise in bonuses
and base salaries should make 2003 a good year for chief executive officers'
pockets, according to a preliminary analysis by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
After weeks of criticism over his $140 million pay and benefits package, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso was forced to resign Wednesday night.
Microsoft Corp. has announced it will no longer give employees stock options
- the benefit that created so many "Microsoft millionaires" back when
the Redmond, Wash., company led the tech boom. Instead, it will grant shares outright.
While employees often express frustration with their employer's performance management system, the process that guides and evaluates employee performance, a new survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting shows that employers have some frustrations and concerns with these systems, too.
