US tech giants set themselves apart with unusual pay plans

Washington

AMAZON.COM, Alphabet and Facebook have upended the establishments in retailing, advertising and media - so it may not come as a surprise that their pay plans are unusual too.

The three set themselves apart from other Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index companies by paying bosses almost exclusively in stock grants that are free from any links to performance goals. The vast majority of the biggest US companies tie most of their top executives' pay to targets disclosed in regulatory filings, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index.