The important takeaway here is that these are not stock options, which are basically play compensation that causes a lot of opportunity for malfeasance, they are Restricted Stock Units and they carry with them some risk if the managers of the company don't actually look out for the long term prospects of Apple, which in turn employs 24,000 people and generates a lot of tax revenues that pay for a lot of social infrastructure in America.
I would rather they receive this type of incentive than be paid huge salaries and receive bonuses regardless of the quality of their performance. Now, imagine if we paid assembly line workers like that. Well, for one thing unions would never allow it... because some workers would be compensated very poorly and others very well. That's not how manufacturing works, though. If you make a widget that isn't up to spec, it doesn't get used... but you're being paid to perform a relatively repetitive task for so many hours in the day. You get paid more if you work more, but other than getting paid overtime, how can you measure the strategic impact of a single worker whose actions do not significantly affect the lives of 24,000 other employees and millions of customers?
Does the average worker spend 100 hours of their week, evenings, nights, weekends, on calls with various levels of management? I can see why people think that senior executives just sit around and bs or play golf.... but I've never worked for such a company, and if you do, you won't for long. The companies that stick around and remain healthy and capable of continuing to keep you and me employed are the ones where the senior executives are busting their butts seven days a week.
But setting aside the handful of cartoonish buffoons like Angelo Mozilo and Richard S. Fuld, both of whom, it should be noted, ran their respective companies into the toilet and engaged in horrendously risky behavior... and are now the laughing stock of corporate America... I know it doesn't sound "fair" that some people are compensated vastly more than others, but some people work vastly more and affect vastly more and own a much larger piece of risk than the average worker.
Even in my job, there are decisions and recommendations I make that can affect entire programs, and scores of employees, and I don't know a lot of people who want that responsibility on their head... you can't put a gun to everyone's head and MAKE them want that. I'm not even an executive, and I don't get paid huge sums of money. I get RSU's here and there, but I'm also not nearly as involved or as busy or as devoid of a life as the people I report up to.... I'm ok with that.
