Director Compensation Survey

Here at Race to the Bottom we frequently discuss director compensation, as in The Compensation Project (Reprise) and The Race to the Bottom and Student Participation: The Director Compensation Project .

This post concerns a recent study by independent compensation consulting firm Frederic W. Cook Co.  The study analyzed director compensation for the top 100 NASDAQ and NYSE companies from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2008.  For NASDAQ companies, median director compensation fell by 2%, whereas for NYSE companies median compensation increased by 4%.

Among other things, the study indicated that disclosure of stock option grants fell 4% for NYSE companies, and 10% for NASDAQ companies.  This shows that companies either are granting fewer stock options or are increasing non-disclosure of options.

 A copy of the study is available here.