Gates, Ballmer get raises
seattlePI | at | by Mike
Microsoft Corp.'s top two executives received 13 percent raises in the past year, with Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer each earning $753,310 in salary and bonuses, the company has disclosed. Gates, who owns 11.6 percent of the company, and Ballmer each got a base salary of $547,500 and a bonus of $205,810 in fiscal 2002, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ballmer owns 4.4 percent of Microsoft. But they weren't the highest-paid executives at the company. James Allchin, the platforms group vice president, earned $495,195 in salary and a $400,000 bonus -- the most of any executive still working at Microsoft.
Five hundred thousand dollars "for an organization like this is nothing," Fong said. But Gates and Ballmer aren't living for their paychecks, he said. "You don't find many execs 20 years after an (initial public offering) of a company still so heavily involved. They're not working for the cash anymore."