I'm sitting at work, casually leafing through the 6/28 copy of Business Week and this pops out:
"(Proxy adviser) Glass Lewis estimates that eBay employees raked in $373 million in option gains last year. At its current rate, the company is expected to shell out an additional $1.7 billion worth of options this year--the equivalent of about $318,000 per employee, or three times 2003 net income. 'Is this a business that's really being run for the economic benefit of investors or the enrichment of the employee base?' asks Gregory Taxin, CEO of Glass Lewis.
eBay shareholders are doing quite nicely, with total 2003 returns of 90%, compared with 28% for companies in the S&P 500."
I think, in a nutshell, this is what is wrong with the business climate/free market economics mantra of the conservative right. These guys are saying that the employees of a company, working 40/60/80 hours a week should not derive the benefits from their hard work until the guy who worked his index finger to the bone calling his broker gets paid off first.
It appears that eBay offers stock options to all its employees as a performance incentive, unlike many companies who offer options only to top executives. Stock options may have their problems when it comes to accounting practices, but criticizing them because they enrich workers at the expense of shareholders seems absurd.
Anyone who works at eBay have anything to add here?