“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.
@BC Kelley:
You are correct, mostly. Steve’s $647 million is interesting when you look at Forbes’ report on what he has earned for the last 5 years… ~$650 million.
In December of 2001, Jobs received 15 million stock purchase options exercisable at about $19 per share… but for the two years following, the shares were below that price. In around July of 2003, Jobs exchanged the 15 million options for 7.5 million restricted shares of common stock. The restriction was that he could not sell, exchange, or borrow on the value of the stock for three years. That three years expired in July 2006. At that point, the shares became vested and Jobs could control them. He sold about 1/3rd of them to pay the income taxes (about $280 million if I recall correctly) on the gain from their value in 2003 to 2006. That is the source of the $647 million figure.
So, in actual fact, the $647 million is the value of the stock he already held but could not control until last year. During the other years from 2001 through 2005, his total realized compensation was approximately $5.00 plus some minor stock options he exercised (about $3 million, IIRC).
If we just averaged his pay for those five years, his compensation would be about $130 million per year.
Forbes also rated Steve Jobs as the 36th most efficient CEO of the 189 rated (to be rated a CEO had to have held the office for 6 years) based on that large number… had they used that average figure, his efficiency rating would easily have been in the top five.
The moment I saw this headline I knew all the a**holes in the universe with a keyboard would start spewing fartage about Apple’s shortcomings, failures, misjudgments, humiliations, scandals, ad infinitum,
And you, for one, certainly didn’t let me down, maczealot. Gawd, but what a pathetic excuse for a business analyst you are. No silver lining in YOUR clouds, eh, Mr. The-Sky-Is-Falling?
Tell me, doomsday boy: If YOU were running Apple, would my average share price of $12.50 (5700 shares) have run up to $100+ under your guidance? (Perhpas you would rather be at the helm of Microsloth or Dull.) Who’s better at what he does than Steve Jobs? YOU? I seriously–SERIOUSLY–doubt it, you miasma of negativity.
Remember, wise one, the greatest enemy of the GOOD in this plane of existence is the PERFECT. Only seraphim and cherubim have achieved the latter . . . and a pack of them got tossed out of heaven on their asses trying to improve that place. (Literary allusion I doubt you’re capable of grasping.)
Enough. Enough of you. Be gone.
UsherHouse:
I’m just doing my job, keeping Apple and good ol’ Steve on the straight and narrow, you know.
There is no reason to bash on Apple the few shortcomings that it does have. People, simple compare it to the competition. Do you see anything even close? Of course not. And, also, was it really that hard to see that the so called earnings were stock and not actual money he has? It’s simple, Apple is great, Steve is humble and I’m sure needs no more money so he will continue to earn $1/year and sell AAPL when he plans to go out of the business. Easy.
Who said Leopard is late. Its not due until late 2009. If it comes sooner, great.
@Toonie, do you have any idea about how much one dollar buys in China? I doubt.
– The salaries Chinese staff make them RELATIVELY well off.
– And that is bringing China OUT of poverty. It certainly isn’t putting it into poverty.
Forbes needs to have a new table of CEO pay – called Value for Money…
@Maczealot, please show me one company over the last 5 years with as many successes and as few ‘failures’ as Apple.
Armchair CEO’s for you hey!
please remember to take your meds before bedtime.
mw “nothing” as in you got nothing, n o t h i n g!
that’s around 1/4 of year profits!
S.Jobs is earning more than he should…
The chief executives of America’s 500 biggest companies got a collective 38% pay raise last year….
WTF! as if they didn’t earn enough of a salary. what raise did the people that really need it got?
“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.”
You’ve just described every retail job in America.
“I prefer solitude and personal interactions”
solitude
noun – the state or situation of being alone
translation:
“I prefer being alone when I talk to the little green men I see.”
“no recent and significant improvements in desktop performance” … since the latest machines were introduced last year?
what’s the average salary for apple store employees?
i believe some on this forum would prefer steve earning a billion per yr intead of increasing rank and file pay a dollar or so per hr.
finally, steve is straight. Its not normal for a male to admire another male to the extent of many on this site; unresolved, repressed issues may be at play
More sloppy ass journalism. The world is full of dumb asses.
Jobs was not ‘paid’ this. If the stock would have plunged, Forbes dumbass journalist would then need to have said that Jobs was ‘paid’ a minus xxx. Bullshit.
Jobs was compensated through the shares. The value of the shares was a product of the share’s rise. These clueless dumbass journalists need to be more professional at working through this … it gives the imprression that Jobs was paid in cash money that figure, which he was not.
@ ShadowMac
I think “an iPod is a must” applies to people who have to have constant busy-ness going on in their head, much as Maczealot implied. The constant noise of an iPod is generally for youngsters (who don’t think) and for older folks who don’t want to think.
Turn off your noisemakers, quiet your mind and wake up to what is real.
Here’s one of the best portraits I’ve ever seen of Steve:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1615876,00.html
people like maczealot are the reason I hate macs. It’s not the technology it’s the snotty whiny people that use them.
“that’s around 1/4 of year profits!”
More like a third of the year’s profits.
But most fanboys would be happy with paying Steve 100% of the company profits, so where’s the problem?
it’s a lot of money, if true.
but it’s not costing Apple that much.
Jobs just makes a lot of money because the stock is doing well.
“Be worth more than you are making,” was always my motto in business. Steve J is that, times two.
Macaday:
You’re missing the point. Apple isn’t a great company because it isn’t as bad as some other company in comparison. If that were so, that would mean that all Apple needed to be great is to perform marginally better than the worst. I don’t have a sliding scale of greatness where Apple’s performance improves with the failures of others. My scale is fixed, inflexible, and constant. Neither does success in one area negate a failure. I don’t operate on the philosophy that “Good enough.” is equivalent to “Do your best.”
Apple stock is gaining value. Apple’s Macs are selling at a rate greater than Dell. Steve Jobs is as rich as Croesus. iPods are the best selling digital music player. AppleTV is selling well. iPhones are just around the corner. I never said that these were bad things. I just want my new and better Mac and new and better software ASAP. Apple’s ostensible “transition” from Apple Computer to Apple, Inc. hasn’t really delivered the products and service that I want.
If you would examine articles, essays, and blogs over time, you will find that all my previous gripes mirror those that others have repeatedly discussed. I simply collated Apple’s flubs and foibles. Look it up, it’s all history.
“Jobs just makes a lot of money because the stock is doing well.”
Understand dilution. Any money Steve gets that way is money the stockholders otherwise would have had. If it were a magical money machine that created cash out of thin air, then we’d all be paid in restricted stock, not dollars.
See what happens when you save your money and stop spending it all on dope and pizzas.
Art imitates life.