Apple CEO Tim Cook Earned $74.6 Million in 2024

[DJM1740]

Cook certainly does. He drives one of the most successful tech companies in the world, with 164,000 employees, selling 600,000 iPhones per day (on the average), and having 1+ Billion active and repeat Apple customers, who purchase Apple products year after year after year.

Sometimes an expense sends outlandish at first until you consider the cost of not paying the expense. When I worked at a commercial nuclear port plant, we needed a particular pump motor that was designed to work in a system related to nuclear safety. It was a relatively small pump, in a system that, except for testing, would hopefully never be needed.

A replacement motor was found at another site and a jet was chartered to fly the part from two states away to the site. Rumor was that the charter jet cost $30k. Outlandish? Maybe but when you consider that without that motor the plant was not allowed to operate and was losing thousands of dollars every hour it wasn't operating, that $30k was cheap.

 

[I7guy]

Betcha they didn’t get $1 stock options.

 

[JohnC1959]

It’s not 1,480x as hard as working as a store employee, which, assuming they make $50,000 (probably higher than a lot of them make for it was a round number so I went with it) he earned that much more.

of course pay isn't based on difficulty of the work but rather the value it adds to whomever pays. I've been lucky to earn very well as a software engineer. When someone says to me "well, you worked hard for that money" I have to reply that I had it WAY easier than most making a quarter of what I made. So I count myself lucky

 

[fathergll]

Betcha they didn’t get $1 stock options.

Obviously not. They make more on stocks and bonuses than some silly salary. I'm just pointing out this is common since the other posted made a comment as if Steve did something out of the ordinary for a CEO which he didn't.

 

[JohnC1959]

Obviously not. They make more on stocks and bonuses than some silly salary. I'm just pointing out this is common since the other posted made a comment as if Steve did something out of the ordinary for a CEO which he didn't.

yep. I found one list from 2023 showing Tim Cook at 14th from the top paid.

 

[bLackjackj]

Absolutely outrageous that any single individual is paid this amount of money whether or not a public or private company! The share price is due to a mass amount of people, not one..to get Apple to where it is today.

This cannot be justified given Tim's pet project failires - AVP & Apple car losses when the project was dumped.

EVERY individual who works at Apple from gardener, coffee shop, cleaner, apple store employee..all the way up the chain deserve a massive raise!

 

[Vanarak19]

It’s not 1,480x as hard as working as a store employee, which, assuming they make $50,000 (probably higher than a lot of them make for it was a round number so I went with it) he earned that much more.

LOL. Apples to some other object. My bet is one of the two is overly qualified for a retail position while the other will never be a CEO. Being CEO of Apple is infinitely harder than retail.

 

[steve09090]

Absolutely outrageous that any single individual is paid this amount of money whether or not a public or private company! The share price is due to a mass amount of people, not one..to get Apple to where it is today.

This cannot be justified given Tim's pet project failires - AVP & Apple car losses when the project was dumped.

EVERY individual who works at Apple from gardener, coffee shop, cleaner, apple store employee..all the way up the chain deserve a massive raise!

Is research really a failure? Are you saying that nothing useful was learned during those times? Elon Musk keeps blowing up rockets, does that mean that the richest person in the world is a failure? No, every failure is an opportunity to learn.

And then of course, the late great Steve Jobs said: "you have to be willing to fail…you got to be willing to crash and burn."

So if the AVP ends up being a product that does not continue, the learnings in that device are incredible, and no other company has developed those capabilities to this day.

 

[God of Biscuits]

Cook certainly earns his salary. He drives one of the most successful tech companies in the world, with 164,000 employees, selling 600,000 iPhones per day (on the average), and having 1+ Billion active and repeat Apple customers who love and purchase Apple products year after year after year.

And speaking of Apple employees... while other tech companies (google, Meta, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Yahoo, HP, Dropbox, Qualcomm, Cisco, Infineon, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, IBM, Expedia, Salesforce, eBay, Amazon, etc., etc.) had massive layoffs starting a few years ago, Apple had none.

The market may have decided his performance merits that amount, but he, the person, hasn't *earned* that amount. no single human being can do $75M worth of actual work. That's just crazy.

 

[God of Biscuits]

Is research really a failure? Are you saying that nothing useful was learned during those times? Elon Musk keeps blowing up rockets, does that mean that the richest person in the world is a failure? No, every failure is an opportunity to learn.

And then of course, the late great Steve Jobs said: "you have to be willing to fail…you got to be willing to crash and burn."

So if the AVP ends up being a product that does not continue, the learnings in that device are incredible, and no other company has developed those capabilities to this day.

Elon Musk has nothing to do with the !@#$ rockets.

 

[CarAnalogy]

That’s to reduce their tax burden. It’s not out of the goodness of their heart.

To be fair it’s also to tie their compensation directly to the performance of the company. $1 cash, but millions in stock and company expense charges.

Steve rarely did anything to do with money out of the goodness of his heart. In his case it was also because he had something to prove.

I think that’s the real issue. People feel like CEO compensation is wildly out of touch with the CEO’s contribution and that their hearts just aren’t in it.

To be fair I also think that Cook’s heart is in it FAR more than any other tech CEO I can think of. All the great founders are dead or retired, he is still the closest lineage we have to the Greatest Computer Generation.

 

[citysnaps]

The market may have decided his performance merits that amount, but he, the person, hasn't *earned* that amount. no single human being can do $75M worth of actual work. That's just crazy.

Not crazy at all considering the massive success of Apple due to Cook's leadership.

Sure... you can find loads of people who might take the job for $1 million (I would). But they won't have the wisdom and decades of *PROVEN EXPERIENCE and RESULTS* that Cook has, making Apple one of the most successful tech companies in the world.

Results matter.

 

[August West]

That's quite a bit…

Not compared to a lot of other corporations that generate a lot less profit.

 

[klasma]

EVERY individual who works at Apple from gardener, coffee shop, cleaner, apple store employee..all the way up the chain deserve a massive raise!

If Tim’s earnings were distributed among all 164,000 Apple employees, that would amount to a monthly raise of $38, or $455 per year, for each of them. So, while I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think that actual massive raises for everyone would fare well with the shareholders. That’s unfortunately the reality of publicly traded companies.

 

[SFjohn]

I expect the company (with whom I have irrevocably tethered my livelihood) to be managed well. Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, but he isn't steering the ship aground. Pay the man.

This said, I also expect Apple to continue to innovate instead of just 'upgrading' their products with simply more ram and better processors. Let's not prove Newton's First Law Of Motion, Mr. Cook.

I know the vast majority of of people here hate it, but the Apple Vision Pro is a pinnacle of innovation. The eye tracking & gestures based functionality is magnificent. 👍🏻 Those of you that think it’s impossible to earn as much as Tim Cook (who is a pauper to Mr Musk), try and take any company you head to an almost 4 Trillion market cap this past year and do that yourself.

 

[steve09090]

Elon Musk has nothing to do with the !@#$ rockets.

So are you saying the person who owns 42% of the company, has 79% voting control, is listed as "Owner and Lead Designer" has nothing to do with running the company? You're funny.

The market may have decided his performance merits that amount, but he, the person, hasn't *earned* that amount. no single human being can do $75M worth of actual work. That's just crazy.

That's an interesting number. How did you get to exactly $75M?

Max Verstappen (F1 driver for those living in a shoe) earned $75M in 2024. $60M in salary and $15M in bonuses. But when you consider the sponsorship he brings in, the fact that there is a Dutch GP because he is racing (they lose it in a couple of years), he is absolutely worth it. It's never about the hourly rate.

I know the vast majority of of people here hate it, but the Apple Vision Pro is a pinnacle of innovation. The eye tracking & gestures based functionality is magnificent. 👍🏻

Exactly, it's hardly a failure in any metric. Sure it isn't for the masses, yet. And maybe never will be, but the innovation and R&D alone are worth $Billions and will steer the future.

 

[acader]

No wonder he thinks “normal” people can afford an Apple Vision Pro. Absolutely out of touch with reality if that’s what he is payed!!

Vision Pro was never meant to be a mass consumer product. For that, there's Meta. There's a market for Mercedes as well as Kia.

 

[fathergll]

no single human being can do $75M worth of actual work. That's just crazy.

Now much can a single human being do of a actual work?

 

[steve09090]

Now much can a single human being do of an actual work?

Apparently $74,999,999. They won’t say his they arrived at that number. It doesn’t make sense to me. He's not a process worker.

 

[citysnaps]

No wonder he thinks “normal” people can afford an Apple Vision Pro. Absolutely out of touch with reality if that’s what he is payed!!

Where and when did Cook make the claim "normal people" can afford AVP?

 

[fel10]

Why focus on innovation when you’re earning well by releasing mediocre upgrades?

 

[Devyn89]

LOL. Apples to some other object. My bet is one of the two is overly qualified for a retail position while the other will never be a CEO. Being CEO of Apple is infinitely harder than retail.

Did I suggest it wasn’t? No I didn’t. But it’s not 1,480 times harder and that’s my point.

 

[surferfb]

The whole story around AVP is so messed up on the forums. Apple didn’t expect an entirely new product category that starts at more money than the average American’s monthly take-home pay to be a smash hit selling millions of units. They’re not idiots.

Just because Apple intentionally released a product unaffordable to most people, so that there would be sufficient content, apps, and use cases in a few years when the technology is doable at a price and form factor that is appealing to the mast market, does not mean it is a failure.

And it’s an amazingly innovative product.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Completely outrageous that anybody makes this amount of money

 

[fathergll]

Apparently $74,999,999. They won’t say his they arrived at that number. It doesn’t make sense to me. He's not a process worker.

How can us mere mortals question God of Biscuits? I just assumed this information came to him via osmosis from the heavens above.