Steve Ballmer, Other MSFT Execs Take a Pay Cut

I feel so small.. with 0.000? million this years.

What, a softie makes $6.2 mil a year? huh? what does he do again? and he makes more than Steve Ballmer?!

Steve Balmer seems to be the most responsible one of all the Execs with the lowest pay. I think they should all make less than him and then they wouldn't have to lay anyone off.

Those are some cuts! Course that's still a HUGE amount to get paid.

Does anyone else find it strange that Ballmer (the CEO) is the lowest paid guy on the list?

So I guess their pay cut was going from 200 mill a year to 170.. Poor things Hope they can sleep well tonight knowing such a tragic event has happen to them.....

MSFT could save $14.82 million a year if they would reduce all the Execs to Steve's pay. Then they could keep all those 5000 employees and pay them $29,640 a year. I hate Execs. I know it's not much money. But it beats working at Wal-Mart.

what do you with 8M a year salary? There is no such thing as debt or having to take a loan to own anything you would ever want... That is sick!
What can you possibly do to be worth that kind of money?

even with the cuts they still are making more money in one year than people make in their lifetime, when you make that kind of money your standard of living increases, since they don't drive $30 000 sedans, or live in small houses

What's next, Windows price cut? hopefully.

Not really. Steve Ballmer is one of the founders of Microsoft (Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer), as such his stock is worth several billion dollars. When you consider that, his salary is almost perfunctory.

I just checked out the table in the linked document and Steve Ballmer does have the highest salary, but for some reason he doesn't get stocks like the other guys do. Weird. I'm sure there must be some law or something to explain why he doesn't get them.

Or maybe he already has so many stocks that if they give him more he'll have too large a share or something.

I still can't figure out how can one single person make 8 mil a year being a softie (what's that anyway, software programmer?). What do you do with 8 mil a year? I wouldn't know. I would be happy with 60k a year damn it.

Maybe they meant BILLION on Steve's paycheck? Why would he get payed less? I mean, I sort of understand or can come up with some kind of reasoning but like others have said, everyone should be making what he makes, or less. No?

Cut them all down to less than a million each, that way there, they won't be so hard pressed to sell so many copies of Windows and Office at such high prices.

Maybe then, the average person could afford to purchase a legal copy within their budget.

I guess they won't like to fight a fair fight, and get a normal worker's wage huh?
I can be happy if I make $20 per hour.. My wife has to do with $12 per hour!

warren buffett doesnt drive anything outrageous... [/shrug]

Their high salaries really have no effect whatsoever on the price of Windows or Office. Even if you cut their salaries to $0 and then applied that as a price cut to Windows or Office we'd be lucky to save $0.25 on either product. I know there's a lot of hate for CEOs and high salaries these days, but there is a market that determines how much someone is worth. If they aren't worth that much then the company wouldn't be able to afford to pay them. I wish I made in the millions of dollars per year too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get upset for someone else being successful.

Wait... the bastards at the top make money in the MILLIONS?!

What the hell? I thought you know , ya reached the top and you would make I dunno 600,000 a year. tops. still more then all the people I know. Thats insane.

If I made 6 million in one year I'd buy a small house and travel for the rest of my days. (After the house the rest would be invested and live off interest)

Surely you aren't serious. Almost all the big CEOs make in the 7 figures with salaries. With stock options and bonuses even more. Take any Fortune 500 company CEO and you'll find that.

It's still outrageous. I mean, those nasty executives, you know, the ones running one of the most successful companies in the world, should take no money. They should do it out of the kindness of their hearts. It's not like Microsoft should try to keep talent or anything...

Look at Balmer´s photo!! It´s almost as he´s pretending to be a magician:

- See nothing in my hands!!! (and thinking it´s all in my pockets!!!) LOLOLOLOLOL

The founder of my company bought an Expedition when they first came out and had a marine conversion done that that now he can take his SUV out onto his lake. If you have the money to burn, you can find a million and 1 ways to spend it.

I'm with everyone on this forum, this is awful! The government ought to pass a law allowing President Obama to decide how much people are allowed to make. Im tired of these greedy sons of b**ches execs making more money than me because they are talented. Its unfair and unconstitutional!!! I know darn well the founding fathers would be against this type of free market capitalism.

The picture makes me thing Balmer is Frankenstein "Fire Bad!"

Wait...something is wrong here. They cut 5000 jobs, cut the salaries of the top execss, and yet they are offering Apple employees great incentives to jump ship...yea, what they mean to say is "we will hire them away and have them walk the plank into some shark infested waters."

I hate statements like this. Ok, first of all, "worker" is a Marxist term. You are not forced into servitude, as such in the U.S. we have EMPLOYEES, not workers (other than using that term generically).

Second, businesses do not exist to provide you with a job and health care benefits and retirement plans, etc., etc.; businesses exist to make money. When they hire an employee, they do so because they require their services in order to achieve their ultimate objective... MAKING MONEY. Your compensation is in proportion with how valuable you are to that business. Your value comes from one of two avenues in either a direct or indirect fashion: either you make the business money, or you save them money. If your wife makes $12/hour, then that is the value of her services to that business. If she feels that is not fair compensation for her time and skills, then she should go elsewhere or start her own business (the same goes for you).

Third, what are you talking about "fight a fair fight?" It is very easy for people to villify corporate executives (and to be fair, they are some who deserve it), but do you really know anything about their life? All you see is the money. What you don't see are the 80 hour work weeks, the constantly being on call, the being responsible for the performance of a company and, by association, for the well-being of their employees. These guys make millions of dollars a year because that is their level of value and responsibility to the company. I've seen and worked with corporate C-level executives up close and I can tell you unequivically, I would not want that job.

@apmyhr

I don't think you understand how business works from a CEO perspective. With the title of CEO anything that were to happen to Microsoft from a legal or financial standpoint, he is at fault. If there were jailtime involved with any actions Microsoft were to take he has the highest amount of risk to do the time. I say he is getting ripped off.

And I don't care what anyone says. Mental stress is much worse then physical stress when working. With the positions that those employees are in, they need compensation for that. I would never want their job.

I have but one question:

If you are running a company, and you lose profits for that company...why should you get a bonus?