Everywhere one turns these days, there’s more evidence of how high technology is turning Virginia’s corporate culture on its head. Technology is not only driving the state’s economy, it’s also spurring new ways of compensating valuable workers and top managers.

These ideas — incubated in tech firms — are now spreading throughout corporate Virginia. The reason? The economic boom keeps rumbling along, and the state is enjoying some of the lowest employment rates in its history. Highly prized technology workers and the people who manage them are in tight supply, so employers had better keep them happy. It’s simply cheaper to keep them on board than to find replacements.

Want evidence of how high tech has affected the best-paid executives? Look at Virginia Business’ annual list of compensation, including salaries, bonuses and exercised stock options (Page 13). Being shoved aside are the old players from Old Economy companies, typically Fortune 500 execs who won their corner offices by keeping their firms on a steady course. Of the Top 10 executives this year, only one, Richard L. Sharp of Circuit City, is from a non-high-tech firm. But watch out: Sharp’s policies are energizing Circuit City’s moves into electronic commerce. The top dog, Stephen M. Case of America Online, made well more than corporate superstar Jack Welch of General Electric. Charles Allen, who is all of 33 years old and co-founded webMethods, fills our No. 2 slot with a remarkable $85.9 million in total compensation.

Three on our list of 100 are women: Mary Dridi, chief financial officer of webMethods; Peggy Newman, executive vice president at Virginia Capital Bancshares; and Jan Loichle, vice president at Nextlink Communications. While still a modest showing, the women scored a significant gain on previous years. Mary Dridi outscored 87 others on the list with total compensation of $12.2 million.

This style of big rewards for big-risk companies is being embraced by many Virginia firms and is trickling down the ranks, too. To retain hard-to-replace professionals and middle managers, many firms are taking a page from the high-tech bible and giving away perks and unimaginable money. Firms are using everything from personal valets, free BMWs and Caribbean cruises to keep their workers happy and productive (Page 25). Gone are the days when the only way to get ahead was to show up early, stay late and plod through mountains of work.

How long will this new style of employee compensation last? At least as long as the good times roll. It did suffer a blip when the high-tech stock market stumbled this spring. But the mismatch in supply and demand for senior and even midlevel talent shows no sign of easing as the entire economy, not just a few high-tech leaders, embraces Information-Age modes of doing business. Just as Saturdays off and 40-hour workweeks became standard in the early 20th century, the new culture of respecting key employees and rewarding them very well may become the norm.