Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos passed up a pay raise and bonus for a fifth straight year, but he managed to cash in on millions of dollars in options, according to the company's proxy filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bezos, along with other company founders such as Apple Computer's Steve Jobs, often hold large stakes in their companies and, as a result, decline traditional salary increases, bonuses or both. But over the years, Bezos has seen his ownership stake fall. For example, it was 27.6 percent last year, down from 41 percent in 1998.

As with other chief executives, a large percentage of Bezos' compensation comes from exercising options. Bezos exercised $7.3 million in options last year, according to Friday's filing. And at the end of the year, he had $5.3 million in options he could have exercised and $13.2 million in options that have yet to vest.

Executive stock option grants are among the hot issues for shareholders these days, not only in the tech sector but also across a range of other industries.

One Amazon shareholder, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' Pension Benefit Fund, has submitted a proposal on the topic. The pension fund is asking investors to approve a stock option proposal at Amazon's annual shareholders meeting on May 28 that calls for linking the exercise price of executives' options to an industry performance index of Amazon's peer companies.

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