Tim Cook Earned Over 1,400 Times the Average Apple Worker in 2021

Apple boss Tim Cook's pay in 2021 was 1,447 times that of the average employee at the tech giant, a filing on Thursday showed, fueled by stock awards that helped him earn a total of nearly $100 million (roughly Rs. 742.31 crore).

In 2021, the median pay for employees was $68,254 (roughly Rs. 50.66 lakh), Apple said, adding it had selected a new median employee for comparison due to changes in hiring and compensation.

The median pay in 2020 was $57,783 (roughly Rs. 42.89 lakh) and the pay ratio was 256 times Cook's salary.

The iPhone maker has benefited from strong demand over the past two years as consumers working from home splurged on upgrades. Apple's revenue rose more than 30 percent to $365.82 billion (roughly Rs. 27,15,521 crore) for its fiscal 2021 and its shares briefly crossed $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,22,69,270 crore) in market capitalization this year.

Cook, whose salary remained at $3 million (roughly Rs. 22.26 crore), received $82.3 million (roughly Rs. 610.92 crore) in stock awards, $12 million (roughly Rs. 89.07 crores) for hitting Apple's targets and $1.4 million (roughly Rs. 10.39 crore) for air travel, 401(k) plan, insurance premiums and others.

In total, he earned $98.7 million (roughly Rs. 732.65 crores), compared with $14.8 million (roughly Rs. 109.86 crores) in 2020.

Cook took the helm in August 2011 after the company's co-founder Steve Jobs stepped down months before his demise. The stock has surged over 1,000 percent since Cook took charge.

In September, Cook received 333,987 restricted stock units, in his first stock grant since 2011 as part of a long-term equity plan. He will be eligible to receive additional units in 2023.

Cook told Fortune magazine in 2015 that he plans to donate his wealth to charity.

CEOs in the United States were paid 351 times more than the typical worker in 2020, a report by the Economic Policy Institute showed, while the compensation of top CEOs grew roughly 60 faster than the stock market from 1978 to 2020, eclipsing the slow 18 percent growth in a typical worker's annual pay.

© Thomson Reuters 2021