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Sharing The Wealth How much is too much . . .or too little?

By Patricia Schiff Estess

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Nailing down salary amounts for employees is no simple task forany business owner--but for family business owners determining payfor relatives, it can be especially difficult.

"That's because crafting an appropriate compensationpackage [for] a relative is an art. Emotion gets mixed into thenumbers," says Linda Wood, senior consultant in the humanresources branch of public accounting firm Tofias, Fleishman,Shapiro & Co. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At different times and stages, business owners may use any ofthe following rationales when deciding on salaries forrelatives: