One of the big stories today is the new proposal for monitoring executive compensation. You can read about that here. I don’t have much new to add on that subject for now. I’d rather talk about free beer.

CNN Money is doing a series on small businesses that have great bosses. New Belgium Brewery in Colorado is one of them:

After one year of work, each employee receives an ownership stake in the company and a free custom bicycle. After five years every employee enjoys an all-expenses-paid trip to Belgium — the country whose centuries-old beer tradition serves as a model for the Fort Collins, Colo., brewery. Oh yeah, and employees get two free six-packs of beer a week.

“There’s something wrong if making beer can’t be fun,” says CEO Kim Jordan, who co-founded the company with her husband, Jeff Lebesch, in 1991.

But perhaps we need to investigate executive compensation at the brewery. Raises for rank-and-file employees are down from 7 or 8% to only 4%. And until recently, workers each got a case of beer per week. That’s been whittled down to two six packs.

I’m outraged. Fat Tire is delicious, and these people deserve more of it.