“The chief executives of America’s 500 biggest companies got a collective 38% pay raise last year, to $7.5 billion. That’s an average $15.2 million apiece. Exercised stock options again account for the main component of pay, 48%. The average stock gain was $7.3 million,” Scott DeCarlo reports for Forbes.
“The highest-paid boss of the 500 companies we tracked: Apple (AAPL) chief Steve Jobs. He drew a nominal $1 salary but realized $647 million from vested restricted stock last year,” DeCarlo reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
Worth every penny.
He’s buying the first round!
Whooa!
And worth every penny!
all CEO’s should be paid on how they do for the company, and stockholders, what would piss me off, if I was a stockholder in a company loosing $$, and the CEO was getting a fat check, same time employees were getting dumped on
Did anyone think it was really $1? For what he’s done, I’ll throw in a buck myself.
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MDN: “strength.” MDN’s psychic. I love it.
And he gets free ProCare and free iPod batteries for life.
Leopard late, cinema displays over-priced, no recent and significant improvements in desktop performance with the exception of the Mac Pro, iWork in hiatus, stock options fiasco (i.e. ethical lapses) stinking up Cupertino, Apple forced to improve OS X security through public humiliation, battery issues for notebooks still unresolved, AppleTV humdrum, no news regarding 45-nm processors in next generation Macs, .Mac needs improvement. Other than that, great job, Steve. Give yourself a raise and knock off early.
@ Twisted!!
That is worth at least Oh say,
$8 a year…
MDN = eight
@MacZ…
You know you are so right!!!
After all things were so much better prior to Jobs return as the iCEO (interimCEO) –
Maybe you can get a petition going to bring back Sculley to the property!
MDN=property
Maczealot,
Macs are selling at twice the increase of all other PCs. iPod sales are up. We’re smashing the competition at the iTunes store. We have 12 billion in cash reserves. Profits are massive. Stockholders are happy, and we’re one of the most environment-friendly computer company around.
What part of successful do you not understand? All companies have problems. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need executives. Bozo.
S.
Yeah, Steve the stockholders are happy, but the folks working the retail stores know they have to put up with with shit you can’t even imagine or would want to put up with just to get by every day.
Management sucks and does not value the employees.
And he gets into Disneyland for free?!?!?
What a life!
Think Steve ever joins this MDN party? I got an email from him once. Should have saved it.
But what about the little man…
Maczealot, you’re only scratching the surface and I agree with you 200%. But he sure beats Sculley on all counts.
I have seen Apple become a greedy company little by little over the years. Overpromising and underdelivering. Silent recalls all over the place. Cutting corners here and there. Dismantling upgrade paths. Quality riding backseat to manufacturing economies. Etc. etc.
Got to keep those shareholders happy!
Still… and this is sad to say… it beats its competitors to a pulp. That’s the grim reality of today’s technology marketplace.
Shiny mediocrity confused for excellence. Something’s gotta give.
The idea behind getting paid $1 and getting stock options is good on a couple of points. First, he gets more money when the company does better. No more paying hundereds of thousands for a CEO taking a company into the ground. Second, for Steve is that the money he makes on the options are taxed as capital gains is taxed at a MUCH lower rate. By taking only $1, he ensures that his base tax bracket is low.
Win for the share holders, win for Steve Jobs. (government looses the extra taxes)
I don’t have a television, so AppleTV is meaningless to me personally. I live in the sticks, and cellular phone service is lousy and unpredictable. I don’t want an iPod, as I prefer solitude and personal interactions to the constant noise that others seem compelled to indulge in isolation. The things that do matter to me don’t seem to matter to Apple, although AppleTVs, iPods, and iPhones will fill Apple’s coffers with loads of dough.
I suppose that I have to patiently wait for Apple to design the Macs and the software that do make my personal and professional lives more useful and productive.
he can buy me a nuclear powered revolving dildo to sit on as i cry over how poor i am compared to these gods richer than god
Whilst it can make sense for executives to be paid in shares so that they benefit when the company does well, it does smell to me of nepotism, can lead to fraud, overcompensates and effectively allows them to beat the taxman, e.g.
The board and executives make sure they all get a nice cut.
There can be a temptation to pump the stock to boost option returns.
Being paid half a billion a year is way too excessive, even for Steve Jobs.
Avoid paying higher rate of tax for that level of income is patently unfair.
I would prefer executives to be paid bonuses for reaching lofty goals, for caps on option awards and taxation at a different level from standard capital gains.
@ Investor
He also avoids playing into social security too… well, he pays on the 1.00 he makes.
The Dude abides.
No one is worth that much and wealth can’t exist without poverty.
What would happen if all those slave labourers in China demanded and got $20/hour to make computer components? The price of a Mac would either have to go way up or Steve Jobs would have to lop $600 million off his paycheck in order to keep the price of a Mac reasonable and affordable.
Someone has to pay somewhere and its the people making 50 cents/hour (or less) and forced to work 16 hour days that make it so easy for many of those CEO’s to report great profits.
Not to diminish Apple’s considerable industrial design skills or Steve Job’s particular genius, but any idiot can turn a great profit when you’re using slave labour to manufacture your product.
@MacZealot
Obviously you must not do much driving…or take public transport…an iPod is a must…good for language lessons too…
Do I smell rebate? Ooops, sorry, that was my tuna sandwich.
Sure, Steve is worth every penny, but lots of folks working in the Apple Stores, phone banks, and cube farms are worth more than what they are earning. Even cutting his income in half to a paltry $320 million and speading the difference amongst Apple employees would increase their average wage significantly, along with their standard of living, purchasing power, and ability to save into the future. Frankly, as much as I love Steve and thank him for what he’s done for Apple, this figure embarrases me.
Ok, sure some of you experts out there can help me understand the details behind the numbers.
As I understand it, and please correct me if I’m wrong, the $1.00 a year is all the ‘real’ money Steve gets, yes ?
The ‘stock/whatever’ is only on paper, and unless he cashes any in he’s not really getting anything, yes ?
And, to my knowledge, since his return, he hasn’t cashed ANY in, yes ? Or, seems I remember one time something about re-doing some 5-year rollover option (what all the bru-ha-ha is about, yes?), but even that is still only on paper so he hasn’t realized any real ‘profit’ because he hasn’t cashed any in, yes ?
Which is all to say/ask – aside from the Airplane and the buck a year – and to use a gambling phrase – whatever Steve’s been making he’s been letting it ride, yes ?
Hummm, sure looks to me like he’s putting his money where his mouth is, literally. No wonder the pin-heads on Wall Street don’t understand him and Apple.
He’s not in it for the money. He’s out to change the World.
Thank You
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
p.s. – how appropriate, my MDN Magic Word is “give”
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@toonie
It sounds like you are under the assumption that the amount of money on this planet is a zero sum game, and that idea has been proved wrong over and over for the past 400 years. I don’t mean to sound condescending, but if that IS what you are saying, then you might want to think that through some more.
Also, paying low wages in China is THE ONLY way to be competive. If they were actually paying real slaves that would be terrible, however, people take these jobs in other countries, and until they organize themselves and demand higher wages, its not Apple’s problem.