Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the world's richest man, got a modest pay raise over the last year, according to a company filing.

Gates, who is also the company's chief software architect, received $901,667 in salary and bonus from the company for the fiscal year ended June 30, the company revealed in its proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's up 4.4 percent from the year earlier total in salary and bonus.

But Gates' increase was lower than the nearly 15 percent rise in pay and bonus he received the previous fiscal year.

The filing shows Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer received the identical pay and bonus as Gates, as he has each of the previous two years. Neither executive received stock options

Gates was listed as the world's richest man by Forbes in March, with an estimated net worth of $46.6 billion.

Gates' personal income saw a bigger jump when Microsoft doubled its annual dividend to 16 cents from 8 cents during the 2003 fiscal year. The company's first dividend payment was made in fiscal 2003.

With 1.1 billion shares of Microsoft stock, or about 10 percent of its shares outstanding, Gates' dividends during the year came to about $175.6 million.

This November, the company plans to pay a special dividend of $3 per share, subject to shareholder approval. The company announced in July that Gates will donate his $3.3 billion proceeds of the special dividend to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization named for him and his wife.

The company has also announced it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 8 cents a share, again doubling the 16-cent annual dividend it paid last year. That should raise Gates' regular dividend payments to about $351 million.

Ballmer holds about 411 million shares of Microsoft stock, meaning his dividend payments during the last fiscal year came to about $65.8 million. His dividend payments this fiscal year, including the $3 special dividend, are due to come to $1.4 billion.


Source : CNN/Money