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Currently, Austrian companies can provide employees with up to €3,000 ($3,400) per year in shares. The stock is usually held directly by the employee.

Austrian Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer wants the percentage of total shares of Austrian companies held by employees to increase from 3% to 6%. He argued that in a globalized economy, wages alone would not suffice; workers need an ownership stake as well.

The Board of Directors of Avis has agreed to sell the company to HFS, Inc., a major franchise operator, for an estimated $800 million. Analysts estimate HFS will pay about $35 per share to buy the company, whose stock was most recently valued at about $12.50.

In its 2014 Best for the World list, the nonprofit organization B Lab announced the companies with the highest scores on its assessment.

The stock options backdating scandal may seem like a long-forgotten, if sordid, chapter in executive pay, even if some prominent commentators argued the whole thing was silly and should just be ignored.

When the backdating scandal (discussed in previous columns) erupted, many people expected shareholder lawsuits alleging damage to their stock prices.

Over 100 companies are now reported to be under investigation, internally or by the SEC, for backdating their stock options (recording the grant date as being a prior date when the stock price was low) or "spring-loading" their options (issuing options just before issuing good news).

The financial bailout bill contained an Alternative Minimum Tax "patch" that will keep the tax from applying to millions more taxpayers.

The law firm Baker & McKenzie today released its 2014 Global Equity Matrix (PDF), a summary of compliance, tax, securities, labor, and privacy issues for employee stock opt

The Global Equity Services Practice Group at the law firm Baker & McKenzie announced last week that it had released an updated version of its