Stock options most likely for the higher paid

In 1999, 1.7 percent of all private industry employees received stock options. Executives (4.6 percent) were about three times as likely to get stock options than were other employees (1.6 percent).

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The share of non-executive employees offered stock options ranged from 0.7 percent for those earning less than $35,000 to 12.9 percent for those earning $75,000 and more.

The likelihood that employees received stock options also ranged by industry, from 0.2 percent in nondurable manufacturing industries to 5.3 percent in durable manufacturing industries, and by geographic region, from 1.1 percent in the Northeast to 2.1 percent in the West.

These data are a product of a pilot survey of stock option incidence conducted by the National Compensation Survey. The survey covered only the incidence of stock options granted during the 1999 calendar year. Executives are employees with authority to make final decisions across different areas of business like human resources, marketing, production, and finance. Read more in Pilot Survey of the Incidence of Stock Options in Private Industry in 1999, news release USDL 00-290.