Non-technology companies can attract good managers with lucrative retirement plans, health benefits and other ways to supplement income, Ross said. Tech companies have experienced some downside in the past three months as investors stopped bidding up their stocks. The share prices of Symbol and Comverse, for example, have fallen about 20 percent from March highs. But he acknowledged that the market decline is causing some changes among job-hunting executives. People are going to look a lot closer at technology companies' business plans and earnings, Lurie said.
Corporate boards have alternatives to ensure that options remain valuable.
They can issue more and more new ones that take into account a lower stock price. That way, if a company's stock has hit bottom and starts going up, the option holders will see gains coming. No executive on Long Island or in Queens realized more from exercised options last year than William Bell, vice chairman of Bethpage-based Cablevision. The package made Bell the highest-paid executive in the region who didn't work at One Computer Associates Plaza in Islandia. Cablevision officials also declined to comment on the executives' compensation.