I think that stock options cost less than straight salary as there's a lot of benefits keyed off of salary.
This is a pretty interesting discussion as I have stock options at my company too and the share price has tripled since 2001 or 2002 - whenever it bottomed. At some point, employee psychology turns to greed and employees hold onto their options for greater appreciation. I don't think that this has happened with Intel or my company at this point. But I've been happy to just hold on.
I don't need the money nor the taxes that would get triggered on an exercise. I think that this is an issue for many big-cap tech companies that are doing well and Intel is certainly in that category.
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