NCEO Now Estimates Seven to 10 Million Employees Actually Receive Stock Options

We at the NCEO now estimate that between seven and ten million employees actually receive stock options in their companies, up from under one million in 1992. Precise estimates are not possible because companies do not have to report the distribution of options under their plans. The estimate is based on various surveys of public companies completed in the last year, names of specific companies the NCEO has obtained from various sources, and our own estimates of the prevalence of option plans in closely held companies, particularly technology companies. The first two sets of data are very reliable (the surveys come to very similar numbers, for instance), but the last is just an educated guess. We believe, in any event, that our estimates are conservative.