Employee Ownership Blog

In the most comprehensive study to date on employee attitudes towards stock options, Gerry Ledford, Matthew Lucy, and Peter LeBlanc of Sibson Consulting have found that stock options appear to be a very powerful employee benefit.

A newly released survey from Sibson Consulting and WorldatWork of 336 publicly traded companies shows that eligibility for option awards dropped from 37% of nonexempt employees in 2002 to 27% in 2003. For sales staff, 67% of employees were eligible in 2002, compared to 57% in 2003.

Employee ownership has become a major factor in the American economy, according to a new national survey of working adults.

In FSB FAS 150-4, the staff of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has stated that "if the employer must redeem, then the shares meet the definition of mandatorily redeemable shares under FAS 150," requiring that the obligation to buy back those shares show up as a liability on a comp

At a November 11 meeting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) tentatively proposed that, when accounting for equity compensation awards, closely held companies be able to choose between the intrinsic value method for accounting (the approach now being used by almost all closely held c

Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and other Senators have introduced the "Stock Option Accounting Reform Act" to limit the implementation of stock options expensing rules by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The bill would:

Three recent surveys provide information on how companies will react to requirements that options, ESPPs, and other equity awards be shown as an expense on their income statements.

In September, the Senate Finance Committee passed the National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee Act, a broad retirement plan reform bill that contains many of the same provisions passed the year before to address post-Enron concerns about diversification of employee stock in 401(k) pla

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced at its October 29, 2003 meeting that its new standards for equity compensation expensing would be effective for accounting periods starting in 2005, similar to the plan of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

On September 17, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously passed the "National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee Act" ("NESTEG"-even Congress has a sense of humor). The bill contains a variety of reforms of defined benefit and contribution plans.

As passed by the Senate Finance Committee, the "National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee Act" would prohibit employees from deferring taxation on stock options, restricted stock, or other equity arrangements by electing to defer any compensation until some point after the exercise of

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has delayed the date it intends to issue proposed rules for expensing stock options and other equity compensation until the first quarter next year, with final rules then due out in the third quarter.