Some of America’s highest-paid CEOs earn more in a few hours than the typical U.S. worker makes in an entire year. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook surpasses the annual salary of an average American worker in roughly seven hours.
And even though he’s one of the highest-paid chief executives in the world today, his current paycheck is a far cry from what he once earned. In 2022, Cook received nearly $100 million, largely due to stock awards, but his pay dropped the next year following backlash from Apple staffers and shareholders.
And when compared to the paycheck of everyday Americans, the difference is severe. With his $74.6 million package, it only takes around seven hours for Cook to out-earn the typical U.S. worker — who takes home just $62,088 a year, according to 2025 first quarter wage data from the BLS.
Within the 30 minutes it takes most people to commute to the office, Cook is already $4,256 richer—more than what most Americans have set aside as emergency savings… It only takes 2.15 days for Cook to pool up $439,000 in earnings, the median price of a U.S. home, according to a new CEO salary tool from Resume.io.
In just over 21 minutes, Cook has made enough to buy a $3,000 MacBook Pro; and in less than eight minutes, he can score an $1,100 iPhone Pro 17.
MacDailyNews Take: Can’t see what’s coming except for fat checks and endless stock awards. $74.6 million per year.
Actually, though, seven hours seems too long — that’s like almost a whole workday for a nine-fiver — but, hey, math is math!
Yes, executive compensation is out of whack. Tim Cook is vastly overpaid for what he does. This is because he holds a rare skillset and it benefits the shareholders to have continuity in the CEO position. Basically, Apple overpays Tim Cook in order to have a long-term CEO which provides confidence to the market. A succession of different CEOs jumping from company to company every other year seeking higher salaries would be a negative and justifies Cook’s overpayment. Cook is paid to stay more than for what he actually does. This is why he has vesting targets set years into the future. If he stays, providing continuity, he benefits and so does the company’s stock price. — MacDailyNews, February 18, 2022
See also: Apple CEO Tim Cook among the most overpaid CEOs, study finds – February 17, 2023
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If they did not offer the value they would not be paid what they are!
BS and you know it. Executives put their friends on their boards to ensure they get very handsome self-serving stock options packages. No human is worth what these modern princes award themselves.
… and many studies show the damage this causes.
When an economy is finacialized and debt based (banks integral players), those close to the money benefit the most (Cantillon Effect). Those closer to the money gain more assets and the bank created $$–required in our idiotic and ever increasing debt system–the currency’s devaluation translates to rising of asset prices. Rinse/repeat.
At the root; our fiat system…that brings us (some esp) privilege, but is bound to fail…as is the course of the World’s currency (Triffon’s Dilemma) that provides liquidity to the World, while becoming hollowed out (industry flees).
If one has owned any AAPL, you’ve been a participant and benefactor in the above play. The Cookster has been flush in the system.
Granted, it’s Tim’s time to go. He’s hung on for 5-7 years too long. When the car needed a visionary, he wasn’t the guy – and showed it by a totally failed program. VisionPro, don’t get me started. Amazing tech, stupid price, who’s it for, what problems does it solve?…
But hey, good for Tim. The Marxist narrative is to burn in envy and jealousy into people. Claim the moral high ground of making little and Tim making too much. Take it from him! I want it!
That’s not America. It’s a level equality (not equity) playing field. Do what you want.
What did Tim do?
– Got his Bachelor’s at Auburn
– Got his MBA at Duke
Not only does that cost him and/or his family or both a lot of time and money, it’s a lot of focus and effort to do a lot with it, most people won’t do.
– 1982 – 1994 worked at IBM learning how tech business and foundational supply chain work actually works.
– 1994 – 1997 Tim worked at Intelligent Electronics.
– 1998 – Present Tim works at Apple in 3 primary roles, CEO now.
And what does he get for this? Rather, let’s look at what he sacrificed. He may be gay but he has not ever married, has no children (never adopted), etc… In a nutshell Tim choose to marry his career and hard working ethic beyond most, along with putting his effort in mental and smarts to work and maximize it for his companies that employed him.
I would never make those choices for money, fame, no way. Tim did. And that’s the thing, just know people make choices and some are good, some are great some are lazy and horrible with their decisions or lack thereof (which is a decision in and of itself).
I don’t begrudge him for making that money. He’s made me money in the stock big-time (relative to me vs him of course). But hey, it’s as free a market as we have right now. Do what you want, don’t let anyone hold you down, or tell you you cannot. Tim took a path and went for it. You do the same in whatever direction you choose. Good for Tim.
Let’s be honest, he isn’t an elite-level CEO. He IS an elite-level COO who managed the post-Jobs years very well but a decade at the helm should have been upper limit. The bean-counting, iterative lethargy that he exemplifies has sapped morale and is directly responsible for various defections of late. Perhaps the criticism should be leveled more at the Board rather than Cook, but either way Apple has suffered from a lack of vision and ambition for at least half a decade now (as all of the Jobs-era ideas have run their course or hit a wall of licensing issues i.e. Apple Television).
I wouldn’t give him too much credit for making sacrifices, some people are worker robots who have nothing better to do. If he didn’t present himself as such a one-dimensional character without a personal life, hobbies or strong beliefs (other than standard issue politically-correct climate and LGBT dogma) he would have gotten more sympathy and understanding.
Income inequality!
The lunacy started back in the very early 1980s when the “trickle down economy” was starting to be accepted. Rich people getting richer and very well off people getting rich was supposed to trickle down and make everyone from upper middle class to middle lower class much, much better off. (No one claimed that anything would directly raise up the lower lower class.)
This cascaded to the rapid rise in “C-level” salaries across many fronts. One reality was boards starting to brag that they had a more expensive CEO (and other “C-level” personnel) than another company. Yes, whether the CEO was worth it or not they raised compensation in order to brag about it!
60+ years ago the CEO of a very large company often made 100x what the lowest wage earner in that company got. That range was pretty much the standard — some a bit higher, some a bit lower. Today it is not uncommon to see a CEO of a very large company make over 2,000x what the lowest wage earner in that very large company makes (and in some cases as much as 5,000x).
How can anyone justify that?
“That’s the way it is.” It is that way only if you’re foolish enough to believe that people like Tim Cook are dollar-for-dollar equivalent in benefit to the company to every engineer in the company.
“The company is making money!” Sure, and the company would be making money if the CEO were paid one tenth of that.
“He’d leave the company if we paid him less.” I’d say, “Good Riddance. If you’re not ‘invested’ in the company, you should go elsewhere.”
“If he stays, we won’t get his full effort unless we pay him an exceptional compensation package.” (This is the excuse the Tesla board is using to give Elon Musk that $1 trillion package — foolishly thinking they’ll get the vast majority of his effort while forgetting that Musk has his hands in a half dozen or more other companies.)
I’m all for paying CEOs what they are worth. But, paying some well over $100 million a year (cash, stock, and other direct benefits) as some of them are is just asinine.
If Tim Apple only got paid $1 a year, it’s not going to affect your income at all. His job is to make his company as valuable as possible and reward the shareholders. You freaking lib anti-capitalists bitch about people earning too much money as if the more they have the less you have. It’s not a finite pie. The more you make doesn’t mean Tim’s paycheck is any less. If you want to bitch about something, How about taxpayers getting ripped off left and right by entitlement programs. $8 Billion dollars to Somali so-called refugees in a giant fraud scheme. Now that’s your money you freaking idiots. Tim earned his money honestly whether you like it or not, yet you’re silent while getting bent over by govt. fraud. Put your energy and vote where it actaully benefits you.
This is the AMERICAN DREAM…
Business is business and billionaires won’t care about the “poor losers”…
MAGA ( Make America Goofy Again).
Runaway oligarchy , i.e., crony capitalism with no officials on the field empowered to manage a fair playing field … is what the US has allowed. We literally watched as a foreign born businessman, enriched by many years of corporate socialism, bought the election for his easily bought candidate. Then this businessman proceeded to datamine citizens’ private information, apparently with the primary intention to Make America White Again. Of course, American was always multiracial, but don’t tell the uneducated regime that uses massive social warrior propaganda to cover its massive corruption and complete mishandling of international and domestic affairs. This administration isn’t conservative. It’s abandoned old GOP core values — dignity, privacy, data protection, accountability, and the rule of law — and is actively turning the USA into a shining beacon for grift and division.
And that is why Cook won’t be retiring anytime soon. He’s going keep working to ensure Apple remains the same socially liberal company it has always been since day one, and continue serving all mankind in every country as equally as poss within the local laws.
Sorry this is such terrible news for you magats running the site.
Didn’t you and your wife just get stabbed to death by your ingrate drug-addled son inside your Brentwood mansion?
You sound a little angry today. What happened? Did your Gays for Palestine rally get cancelled or something?