Apple CEO Earns $378 Million a Year, What About Others?

Bangalore: Apple’s Tim Cook will be worth more than $378 million dollars (per annum) at the end of his 10-year deal with Apple.

Let’s just think about that for a second. Not many take to the path of Entrepreneurship after graduating from college. Most settle for standard jobs, and earn average salaries.  While an average American with a Bachelor’s degree would earn $2.3 million over the course of his/her whole lifetime, according to a report on the New York Times, those who dare to be different have given birth to a different class of the rich.

CEOs who fall under this category belong to an elite class of the affluent, earning more than $10 million per annum

New York Times made a list of CEOs who made it to the top 50 highest paid executives in 2011, and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple took the benchmarks by more than just surprise.

Although his salary was $900,000 in 2011 his reign as the CEO of the world’s most valuable company, saw the value of Apple’s stocks shooting up. It is even reported that Apple is on its way to become the World’s first trillion-dollar worth company.

Now the controversy about Tim Cook’s salary compensation just for last year is this: if he agrees to stay at Apple for as long as the decade, he would get about $378 million (i.e. 1,938 crores approx. -- which was the value for the Restricted Stock Units at the time he was granted them) for retention incentive. This amount, however, is not how much he earned last year, as noted by CNN Money—it’s only the RSU value if Cook is alive and part of Apple after 10 years.

The report from New York Times however brought up considerable hype about Cook’s pay when it listed him as the highest paid CEO in the world after accounting the $378 million as part of his salary compensation.
CNN Money also noted that according to the value of Apple’s stocks on at the close of the first week of April, even this value amounts to $633.68 million.

Considering Cook’s retention amount spread over 10 years would mean that he would earn about $173,600 per day via his retention incentive alone!  Although this is a hefty amount, it still doesn’t amount to $1 million a day as the New York Times report estimated.