BLS Says 11% of Employees in Stock Option Plans

On June 30, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that data from its 2003 National Compensation Survey indicated that 11% of private industry workers "had access to stock option plans," a term the BLS defines as meeting the basic service requirements for eligibility for an award. That means about 12 million employees were in these plans, although some of these employees may never actually get options because the company does not issue them to some or all plan participants during the time they are employed by the plan's sponsor. The survey provides no way to estimate what that percentage is, although the NCEO would estimate it to be not more than 25%. This would result in a number of employees getting options in the same general range as the NCEO's estimate of about 10 million, but below the General Social Survey's estimate of 14 million.

Seven percent of blue-collar employees had access to options, compared to 16% of white collar workers. Workers on the West Coast were more likely to have access than in other regions (16% compared to between 3% and 13%), as were employees of companies with more than 100 workers (18% compared to 4% for those in smaller companies), and workers making over $15 per hour (18% compared to 6% for those making less).