Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mark Jordan - Noble Financial Group.
Mark Jordan - Noble Financial Group
I'd like to ask a question relative to compensation. Clearly, management did a very positive thing in fiscal 2009 by suspending bonuses and curtailing growth of compensation. I'm curious as to what are your compensation metrics you're using for fiscal 2010 and will you be accruing bonus-type expenses and have you increased or postponed or are you increasing annual salaries to accrue in the first quarter or are you postponing that until you see a more robust performance?
Craig LaBarge
Let me address that with respect to the salary freeze and in the case of executive officers the salary reduction that we implemented last year. Those remain in place. We are looking at activity levels and sales and earnings on a regular basis to determine when things are going to turn around. Certainly, at some point we would anticipate lifting that freeze and lifting the salary reductions, but we haven't done that yet and don't foresee doing that in the near future. We want to see solid evidence of a turnaround before we really address that topic.
Now with respect to variable compensation or incentive compensation, both long-term and short-term, in 2009 we did not pay bonuses, either short-term or long-term. The long-term incentive program, which typically calls for payment in the form of restricted stock, did not pay out. Of course, there have been no long-term or short-term incentives in the numbers in 2009 and none were paid.
With respect to 2010, we're just going to be watching that on a case-by-case basis. The metrics will be similar to the metrics that we've used in the past or they are similar to the metrics we've used in the past. Depending upon individual responsibilities in the organization, they'll be tied to everything ranging from net income or operating income, as the case may be, bookings, cash flow and a variety of other factors.
So I would say that given the forecast and comparing to the goals that it's probably unlikely that there will be long-term incentive payouts in fiscal 2010. We may reach goals that will allow us to pay bonuses on an annual basis in certain operations or in certain areas, but at this point we just have to evaluate that on a month-by-month basis and make our judgments.
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