When someone is named to the board of directors of a company, what sort of compensation do they usually receive? A salary? Stock options? A lot of these people have full time jobs and sit on the boards of multiple companies. Sounds like it's a lucrative line of work depending on what the payback is.

Boards are not what they once were. 20 even 10 years ago it was not uncommon for CEOs of larger corporations to fill board positions with people who were in their pocket. Lots of famous people jumped onboard -- why not? The compensation and prestige were high, the workloads low. Nowadays there is more seriousness taken by boards -- they are expected to be familiar with every aspect of the business and to challenge the CEO. Still it is a good gig.

Here's an extract from an article about the top 100 public companies. The full article is linked below.Steven Hall’s study, to be published this fall, shows total remuneration, including cash, retainer, board meeting fees, committee compensation and equity, for non-chair board members up 4.2 percent to $213,800, from an average of $205,150 a year earlier. Audit committee chairmen saw their total pay creep up almost 3 percent to $230,322 while total remuneration for compensation committee chairmen rose 6.8 percent from $213,966 to $228,500.“In general,” says Meyer, “the average paycheck depending on your assignments is going to run from $213,000 to $230,000 all in.” Keep in mind, the numbers above are for the largest companies. Directors of small public companies might get $10K per year (if that).It may seem lucrative, but the landscape has changed with Sarbanes-Oxley. More responsibility/liability for directors.

I believe your question is more directed towards non-executive directors. Non-executive directors get fees for attending meetings (no salary) and stock options. It is a good lucrative job but these guys are also the tops in what they are. You can get info what they make by looking up the compensation section in the annual report (form 10K) filings of public companies.