Apple CEO Tim Cook Gets $100 Million Pay Package! Is It the Most Excessive Package Ever?

Apple shareholders have finally given their approval for a massive $100 million pay package for CEO Tim Cook. However, there have been some investor concerns. The humongous compensation package has met with some skepticism from certain quarters. Most of them thought it to be a little too excessive.

The pay package has been a great jump from Cook’s 2020 package.  when Cook got a slightly lower sum of $14.8 million in compensation. The all-new pay package offers $98.73 in total compensation, which combines $82 million in stock awards, a $12 million bonus for the CEO. It helps hit the internal performance targets, covering his base salary of $3 million.

The Salary is Significantly More than the Average Employee

In fact, the Apple boss gets almost 1,447 times larger than the pay package that the tech giant’s average employee gets. Most shareholders in public companies have a say in getting executive compensation. The votes are considered non-binding which means that Apple would have still moved ahead with the plan in the eventuality of the shareholders rejecting it. Even if the rejection would have not been impactful it will have proved to be a rebuke for the think tank of Apple.

A discussion on Cook’s pay packet began in February 2022 as the team of Institutional Shareholder Services, an advisory firm, put forward their arguments asking shareholders to lower the compensation. The firm asked them to tone down some of the excesses in the salary, including the $712,000 for private jet travel, which was more than some of the offers made by other companies. ISS had also made a pointer on the magnitude of the CEO’s salary.

Cook’s Contribution to the Company

Apple had made an outline in the pay plan in an SEC filing made public in January pointing out that the stock price and revenue had indeed risen under Cook’s leadership; in fact, Cook was suitably compensated for his contribution as he got the equity award for the first time since he took on the role of the CEO in 2011. From a paltry $14.8 million salary to today, Cook’s salary has indeed made a great jump.

Cook has been successful in navigating Apple through choppy waters, including the uncertain time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tech CEO has been able to garner a net worth of $2 billion. While earlier he lived in a humble abode, recently he has graduated to a more luxurious California mansion.

The Shareholder’s Take

The Shareholders have made a plea to Apple’s board of directors making the proposal pushing the company to make an independent civil rights audit to keep a tab on the various internal policies and practices. Meanwhile, the shareholders did not agree to most of the proposals made, asking for the company to practice more transparency about Apple’s future goals. The shareholders also brought other issues to the forefront such as gender and racial pay gaps and discuss some of the other issues such as the talks on forced labor in its supply chain.

But Apple went ahead with the plan despite some muted protests. The company has gone from strength to strength under Cook’s leadership, with the stock growing up to 400% over the last five years. Under the CEO’s watch, Apple was the first company to get a $3 trillion market cap.

Is Cook to Beat Elon Musk Soon?

Elon Musk is still at the top of the list when it comes to getting the highest-paid CEO in the world. He is a business tycoon and entrepreneur. His claim to fame is being the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer of SpaceX. He is also the CEO, and Product Architect for Tesla, Inc., the creator of The Boring Company; he is also the co-founder of the Neurallink and OpenAI. Musk is hands down the highest-paid CEO in the world.

Bezos’ net worth stands strong at $180 billion richest CEO in the world dethroning the former Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos as the richest man on the planet in January. Musk’s fortune reached an all-time high at $210 billion. All Elon’s incredible success and achievements made him one of the highest-paid CEO in the world. His salary as of now stands at $2400 Million and counting.

Clearly, Tim Cook’s competition is now Elon Musk! Is he all set to do a Musk and dethrone him as he did with Bezos? Only time will tell.