Options pool keeps shrinking: survey.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Compensation - Brief Article

Eligibility for employee stock options below the professional level fell sharply between 2002 and 2003, according to the recent Sibson Consulting and WorldatWork survey, The State of Employee Stock Options: 2003. Eligibility for executives, top management and professionals was largely unchanged through the same time period.

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Other key findings of the survey, conducted in fall 2003, include:

* The value of employee option grants decreased more for lower-level employees than for higher-level employees.

* Performance--whether group, unit or company--became an increasingly prominent criterion for determining stock option eligibility.

* Stock options as a proportion of total annual compensation rose from 16 percent in 2002 to 20 percent in 2003.

* Restricted stock is the long-term incentive vehicle most likely to replace stock...