The Perquisite Question

Today, we know that many companies have sold their corporate aircraft and/or decided to more discretely lease their aircraft equipment from a third party. Companies have announced a roll-back of company cars and car allowances, as well as the drying up of other fringe benefits.

In an article posted on the IT news and technology site, Infoworld, a few notable exceptions to the standard of providing perquisites for CEOs appeared at some large companies. Cisco, Microsoft and Apple are among a number of companies whose CEO received no perquisites, as identified in their proxy statements. Each company states that their CEO generally doesn't receive any perks or benefits that are not otherwise available to all employees. Certainly there are many more companies that are still paying perquisites to their executives, but is this newfound frugality a sign of things to come or a passing anomaly? Only time will tell.