Apple’s Tim Cook becomes second most-paid CEO following Elon Musk
In 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook was the second highest-paid CEO of all Fortune 500 businesses, following Tesla’s Elon Musk by $770 million.
As the CEO of one of the world’s largest technology businesses, Tim Cook is expected to be compensated well for his efforts. According to an analysis of the highest-paid CEOs, Cook appears to be towards the top of the list.
In a list created by Fortune comparing the compensation of CEOs within the Fortune 500, Cook was in second place, earning a total of $770.5 million in 2021. However, the report admits that it isn’t a figure stemming from a basic salary, but instead part of a 10-year granting of shares worth $1.7 billion.
Cook does get more typical annual compensation from the company, as well as other benefits. In 2021, he was awarded $82 million in more stock, as well as approximately $630,630 for personal security costs and $712,488 for private jet use, alongside a base salary.
In March, while critics urged shareholders to vote against a $99 million compensation package for Cook, investors voted in favor of the measure.
Fortune puts forward that Cook’s earnings for 2021 are justifiable due to Apple’s stock market performance, as well as managing to reach $95 billion in profit by the end of the year.
In its calculations, Fortune counted the salary and bonuses, “other compensation such as vested restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts and perks, and stock gains in the form of value realized from exercising stock options.” Unexercised options were not considered due to the unpredictability of their value.
Cook trails SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who received a $23.5 billion in 2021 bonus for exercising Tesla stock options granted in 2018. Jensen Huang of Nvidia is third with $561 million, followed by Netflix’s Reed Hastings with $453.5 million.
The survey also discovered that the median total salary of the 280 Fortune 500 CEOs studied was $15.9 million, an increase of 30% year on year.
