Employee Incentives and the Federal Securities Laws

Abstract

Stock-based compensation is no longer the exclusive privilege of corporate executives. A recent survey indicated that sixty percent of publicly traded technology companies offered stock options during the past three years to all their employees. A separate survey cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") indicated that the percentage of major companies with stock option plans in which at least half of their employees could participate increased from seventeen percent in 1993 to 39.4 percent in 1999. Even the less dazzling results of a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that five percent of non-executive employees in publicly traded firms received option grants in 1999. In absolute numbers, estimates indicate that nearly ten million American employees received stock options in 1999, compared with only one million in 1992.

Keywords: employee, Securities and Exchange Commission, securities law, Exchange Act