74 million US dollars: Apple boss Tim Cook earned a little more again in 2024

Even in the Californian sun, the trees don't grow endlessly into the sky: at least when it comes to salaries for the top management, there are sometimes significant downward fluctuations at Apple – unlike the sales figures. Last year, however, Tim Cook received a little more money in his account after a significant drop in the previous year.

In the run-up to Apple's shareholder meeting, which is scheduled to take place on February 25, the company has now submitted the required proxy filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It contains information for shareholders such as the agenda, voting proposals and information on the Management Board. However, the document also contains the salaries of top executives such as Cook and the exact composition of these salaries.

Target salary significantly exceeded

According to the document, the 64-year-old earned a total salary of 74.6 million US dollars (approx. 73.125 million euros) last year. Cook thus exceeded the amount that the company had set as his target salary: 59 million US dollars. The target salary is based on the remuneration paid by similar companies. These include Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Disney, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Cook's remuneration consists of a basic salary of three million US dollars, 58 million US dollars in share bonuses, 12 million US dollars in performance-related bonuses and 1.5 million US dollars in other remuneration. This includes life insurance premiums, vacation pay and expenses for his personal security and flight costs. For safety reasons, Cook is only allowed to travel by private plane – even when he is not traveling on business.

Cook used to earn significantly more

Compared to the previous year, Cook earned around 11 million US dollars more. The USD 63.2 million in 2023 was mainly due to lower share bonuses. In 2022, Cook's total salary was still USD 99.4 million. This means that Cook is no longer on a par with previous salary payments: in 2018, for example, he earned USD 136 million and in 2019 USD 125 million. By 2020, his salaries since taking office as Apple CEO in 2011 had already amounted to almost one billion US dollars, according to analysts. He should therefore be able to cope with the reduction, which is said to have been mutually agreed.

The other executive officers in the boardroom are not starving either. Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, Chief Legal Officer Kate Adams, Head of Sales and HR Deidre O'Brien and Jeff Williams as Head of Operations each received USD 27.177 million in 2024. In addition to a basic salary of one million US dollars, the share packages were also responsible for the high earnings here.

(mki)