Welcome back! We hope all of our readers had an enjoyable and restful holiday season, and we look forward to sharing new insights with you in 2009. With this in mind, we welcome your input. Send us your ideas and requests for newsletter articles by writing to analysts@equilar.com.

As 2009 begins, it is clear that compensation professionals, executives and directors will face a unique and challenging environment in the upcoming year. To help shed light on practices that companies are currently employing to successfully traverse this new landscape, our two January articles focus on modifications to equity compensation strategy and pay reductions for executive officers. These practices, along with like option exchanges, special retention awards and clawback policies, are gaining momentum as Proxy Season approaches.

Top Stories                                                                                  

Unique Equity Compensation Practices
New responses to a challenging environment

For the past few weeks, a large number of clients have inquired about emerging equity compensation trends for 2009. With stock prices severely depressed and market volatility at all-time highs, it is extremely difficult for companies to plan for the future. In this article we explore emerging equity practices.

Read the Full Equity Practices Story

Salary Cutbacks Climbing
Recent base salary reductions for executives

One clear sign of the challenging environment we face is the decision by executives to take a pay cut. An executive team might take this step for several reasons, including outside pressure from shareholders and politicians or a decision to share some of the pain with rank-and-file employees. Here we examine new salary cutback trends.

Read the Full Salary Cutback Story

Equilar in the News                                                                    

To help you monitor the latest executive compensation headlines, we selected several news articles below featuring Equilar data and research. Visit the news and publications section of our website to read our complete listing of recent media stories.

Claiborne CEO Flies Commercial to Cut Costs December 30, 2008
"Twenty-eight U.S. companies, from Altria Group Inc. to Universal Corp., divulged their sale or planned disposal of corporate aircraft in the past two years, says Equilar, which tracks executive compensation and benefits."
Firms Jump to Salvage 'Underwater' Stock Options December 22, 2008
"Companies say they're considering the swaps to bolster employee morale because so many options are now worthless. Equilar estimates that at 72% of Fortune 500 companies, the typical option is underwater."
Passing the Buck December 21, 2008
"'The rate at which companies are reducing executive salaries is certainly accelerating, and in many cases, executives are acting ahead of their boards by voluntarily taking pay cuts,' said Alexander Cwirko-Godycki, research manager at Equilar."
On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real December 18, 2008
"About 57 percent of their pay was in stock, which would lose much of its value over the next two years, but even the cash portions of their bonus were generous: $18.5 million for Mr. O'Neal, and $14.5 million for Mr. Kim, according to Equilar."
General Motors and Ford CEOs Putting Their Salary On the Line December 3, 2008
"Wagoner's total compensation for 2007 was $15.7 million and Mulally's was almost $22.8 million, according to Equilar, an executive compensation research and data provider. In terms of pay, that put them in the top quarter of CEOs in the Standard & Poor's 500 index."
Interested in more media mentions from December? Click here.