Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates gets $20,000 salary increase
Last Update: 6:40 PM ET Sept. 28, 2005
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates, considered the richest man in the U.S., received a 3% salary increase after his annual performance review, the company reported in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
Gates, whose fortune recently was estimated at $51 billion in Forbes Magazine's compilation of the 400 richest Americans, will see his salary rise to $620,000 this fiscal year, from $600,000 for the year ended June 30.
The $20,000 salary increase is substantially larger than last year's, when his salary rose by $8,333, but smaller than the $40,000 raise he got the year before that, according to the proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Following its performance review process, the software giant also decided to award Gates a $400,000 bonus for this past fiscal year, up from the $310,000 bonus he received the previous year.
Gates also received $2,469 in matching contributions to his 401(k) plan for the year, down from $2,787 the year before, according to the proxy.
Microsoft was equally generous with its chief executive, Steven Ballmer, who will receive the same $620,000 salary as the company's chairman.
Ballmer has received an identical salary and bonus to those of Gates for at least the past three fiscal years.
In one of its SEC filings Wednesday, Microsoft also said it raised the salaries of the heads of its newly formed divisions.
James Allchin and Kevin Johnson, co-presidents of the platform products and services division, and Jeff Raikes, president of the business division, all will receive a $600,000 salary for the coming fiscal year.
All three executives received bonuses for the past fiscal year that were higher than those of Gates and Ballmer and ranged from $430,000 to $550,000.
Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:3769, old post ID:30634
Well not really, but it should would pay off my college and my MCSE/MCSA certs, as well as my CCNA and A+. 
