Ballmer and Team Got a Pay Cut This Year

Everyone is hurting this year and even the head-honchos at Microsoft have received a small cut in pay as a result. That would Ballmer & Liddell and the rock stars Bach-Elop-Turner Overdrive.

Sure the numbers are all over the place: base salary went up slightly while cash incentive payments went down and lets face it, Ballmer is far from poor as a result.

Still, as the article points out some of the base salary was set before the economic downturn and more importantly, Microsoft has a considerably low base salary for all their executives when compared to some other industries, ahem. Instead, their real income is through stock options and therefore tied directly to company performance, which we think makes sense and all.

We're just glad we guess that Microsoft seems relatively down to earth in terms of executive compensation.  There, we said something nice.  Now can someone please take care of our ridiculous college loans?  Thanks!

[Source: Seattle Times]