Through
a painstaking process of checking individual company Web sites and
corporate filings, the NCEO has compiled a list of the largest 1,500
U.S. companies, as well as corporate members of the National
Association of Stock Plan Professionals, that have broad-based equity
plans. Of the 1,821 companies that we researched, we could confirm that
131 offer options to most or all employees, 22 offer other kinds of
broad-based equity (of these, six offer options as well), and 498 have
employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs). We suspect that some of the
other companies on the list also have plans, but do not indicate that
in their filings or in the careers section of their Web site.