Lenovo CEO Gets $3 Million Performance Bonus, Gives It Away To Employees

Lenovo CEO Gets $3 Million Performance Bonus, Gives It Away To Employees

Usually, when you hear about CEO compensation, it's in relation to how mind-blowingly much executives make, or how a dismissed honcho left riding on a golden parachute. Not at Lenovo. The PC provider has been on a tear in recent months and is on the verge of supplanting HP as the number one computer manufacturer in the world. That top-notch performance made CEO Yang Yuanqing eligible for a big fat bonus check. Rather than keeping the cash for himself, he divvied up the $3 million performance-related bonus into 10,000-ish slices and distributed it to the everymen (and women) who make up the bulk of the company.

The shared bonus only went out to junior-level employees, such as receptionists and factory workers, rather than managers or other executives. Each employee received the equivalent of $314, CNN reports.

That would be nothing to sneeze at in the U.S., but it's a staggering sum in China, where Lenovo is based. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the average rural Chinese resident only earns 6,977 yuan per year, or the equivalent of $1,094. Urban Chinese residents make out better, pulling down a 2011 yearly average of 23,939 yuan, but that still only works out to $3,762. Basically, $314 can mean a world of difference for Lenovo rank-and-file employees.

Lenovo's CEO pulled down an additional $2.2 million in bonuses from other incentives and earned a total compensation of right around $14 million.

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