This is a mythical average. Here are more real numbers:
75% of all stock options are granted to the top five officers 15% of all stock options are granted to the next 50 officers 10% is distributed among the rest of the employees.
I have worked in hi tech since 1983 and I have never made more than 5% of my salary by selling options in any year except during the two-year bubble. Sadly, many hi tech employees did not sell their stock during the bubble years because they did not know, or would not admit it was a bubble. Many of the folks I urged to sell would not because 1) of the tax hit or 2) they were in it for the "long run." It never occurred to them that 1) stock could lose 95% of its value (it did) or 2) it would never regain those bubble heights....even in the very, very long run.
And in many companies in the financial, industrial and telecom sectors, even that 10%-15% was not freely exercisable. 5-10 year lockouts meant that even if you wanted to sell the stock, you couldn't. And if you left the firm or were downsized (the euphemism 'right-sized' is floating around Wall Street at the moment) before that date, you forfeited any choice.
>
> This was a game for insiders all the way, and it's going to be damned hard
> to make it look like anything else.
>
Absolutely. From tax breaks to earnings dressing, stock options inflated the value of actual shares and were free options for senior management against that 10% of employee compensation they withheld per year.
Nomi
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