Seattle, Sept 20: Microsoft top two executives received 13 per cent raises in the past year, with chairman Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer each earning $753,310 in salary and bonuses, the company disclosed. Gates, who owns 11.6 per cent of the software giant, and Ballmer each got a base salary of $547,500 and a bonus of $205,810 in fiscal year 2002, according to a document filed on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


But the two weren't the highest-paid executives at the company. James Allchin, the platforms group vice president, earned $495,195 in salary and a $400,000 bonus -- the most of any executive still working at Microsoft.

Former president Richard Belluzzo, who left Microsoft earlier this year, earned $918,723 in salary and bonus and $13 million in "all other compensation." That reflects the remaining portion of a $15 million advance Microsoft made to Belluzzo in December 2000 as a guaranteed minimum of what his stock option would be worth as they vested. Bureau Report