Note 15 - Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Notes to Financial Statements

Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans, Other than Share-based Compensation [Text Block]

15. Employee Benefit Plans

We maintain a defined contribution retirement plan (

“401

(k) plan”) for our U.S. employees that provides for a matching contribution by us. All full time U.S. employees are eligible to participate in the

401

(k) plan.  Our U.K. credit card subsidiary offers eligible employees membership in a Group Personal Pension Plan which is set up with Friends Provident. This plan is a defined contribution plan in which all permanent employees who have completed

3

months of continuous service are eligible to join the plan. Company matching contributions are available to U.K. employees who contribute a minimum of

3%

of their salaries under our Group Personal Pension Plan and to U.S. employees who participate in our

401

(k) plan. We made matching contributions under our U.S. and U.K. plans of

$285,618

and

$285,477

in

2019

and

2018

, respectively.

Also, all employees, excluding executive officers, are eligible to participate in the ESPP. Under the ESPP, employees can elect to have up to

10%

of their annual wages withheld to purchase our common stock up to a fair market value of

$10,000.

The amounts deducted and accumulated by each participant are used to purchase shares of common stock on or as promptly as practicable after the last business day of each month. The price of stock purchased under the ESPP is approximately

85%

of the fair market value per share of our common stock on the purchase date. Employees contributed

$108,466

to purchase

19,641

 shares of common stock in

2019

 and

$51,593

to purchase

23,681

shares of common stock in

2018

 under the ESPP. The ESPP covers up to

100,000

shares of common stock. Our charge to expense associated with the ESPP was

$31,954

and

$28,629

in

2019

and

2018

, respectively.