Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I don't care about salaries and pay cuts, so long as one of the expensive tablet devices of this company finally supports the second generation product of the company's fancy electronic pen accessory.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Le0M
I wonder if this is signaling layoffs from Apple. You can hire 50-100 solid engineers with his pay cut, so maybe he took the pay cut to decrease blowback when he also cuts staff?
It isn't a pay cut. His total compensation is based on company performance via long-term stock grants, and they likely just had a lousy 1st fiscal quarter after several non-stellar quarters which both reflect poorly in company performance and stock price. He may even be getting the same number of shares, they are just worth 30% less today.

Executive pay swings pretty heavily toward "Monopoly money" - it sounds great to get x million shares, until you realize its paid out over the next decade, contingent on company performance, contingent on you staying in the role, and that you will have a heck of a time selling those shares before you leave due to the signal it sends the market and because of insider trading regulations.

Thats why it is rather disingenuous when you hear journalists talk about some exec's compensation package theoretical value in an article about a layoff. Thats typically stock which has lost a lot of value, paid off based on performance metrics that they obviously won't hit. They likely have most of their net worth based on the company stock they own, which just took a big hit.

People cry for the unjustness of them not sharing that money with the laid off workers, but it's obviously not real money. And the executives often ask to be paid with more Monopoly money rather than real cash, if they believe in the company they help run.

But back to a reduction in compensation to reduce layoff volume - you do layoffs to reduce operational expenditure. IANAA (I am not an accountant), but I don't think compensation hits as an expense until it is realized. If true, that would mean there are a lot of games you could negotiate which wouldn't decrease the compensation, but rather just defer it.

Apple tends to run very lean on teams however, so I have a hard time imagining them letting people go except maybe in retail. Instead, they'll just keep making it hard to hire replacements to encourage teams to operate more lean. They should have enough cash to keep paying people, as long as they can justify it to Wall Street.
 
  • Like
Reactions: izyreal and 1Peace
No-one can 'earn' that - It's value based compensation. At $100m/year, he makes $48k/hour (based on 52 weeks x 40hr/week).

I.e. if as a result of TC's decisions and directions, Apple generations extra $billions in revenue/profit, then the board of directors (on behalf of the shareholders) will recommend that his compensation be set accordingly. Right now, that's what they think he is worth.
The way I explain it:

My salary is the biggest thing that keeps me working my current job (there are obviously intangibles).

From an employer's view, the salary is mostly what it is worth to KEEP me in that job.

E.g. it's not the value you provide per se, but the opportunity cost if you leave. If they can get someone will equivalent skill quickly enough in the position that they won't lose money, you better hope they are nice people or they will treat you lousy and pay you lousy to boot. Welcome to most of the service industry.

Tim Cook may only have one other person in the world who could fully replace him (Jeff Williams). How much does it take to keep Tim happy, and to keep Jeff wanting to wait for the job?

For the record, I would be happy to do it for less. Apple Board - are you listening?
If only shareholders were more comfortable with you taking the reins!
 
  • Like
Reactions: CalMin
They are pumping it all in to R&D for the Apple Car which will exist purely in AR. Ur welcome.
Good news is it will have full self driving and ship without a steering wheel.

Bad news is that it is really just the screensaver provided by the Apple Maps team.
 
I agree with you 100%.

I love Tim Cook but it would be nice if someone else gets a chance to become the CEO of Apple. Someone who is not afraid of change, innovation and really enriching people's lives. Give others a chance!
Good lord… it’s a tech company and not a religion. There is no room for big innovation when there are no major advances in tech. Like when the original iPhone came out. Before and after that that Steve Jobs presented computer after computer every year.
Apple just came out with their own very impressive SoC and that’s still not enough for you? Smartphones have been perfect for years, there is nothing to really innovate. And no, a foldable display is not a true innovation.
 
I'll give you 3 big ones real quick.
  1. Bringing back the iPhone Mini.
  2. Calculator App on iPads. (It's been 10 years, no stock calculator app on iPads).
  3. Jelly Scroll on iPad Mini.
That's innovation?

Compare your petty suggestions to the giant leap in personal computers, SoC M-series laptops and desktops, which was pulled off DURING THE PANDEMIC!
 
I agree with you 100%.

I love Tim Cook but it would be nice if someone else gets a chance to become the CEO of Apple. Someone who is not afraid of change, innovation and really enriching people's lives. Give others a chance!
Rather simplistic approach of replacing the CEO of the world's most valuable company
 
He had a contract… board signed off on it. Based on it he helped make a lot of money for a lot of people. Given the optics and the economy (now and predictions) he is cool with reworking compensation to what feels more appropriate (for his position and the moment). This is consistent with Mr. Cook’s character and leadership. It’s petty to snark. How much relative to profitability did some other tech leaders make last year? Did they take a cut?

Go away oh voice of reason :)
 
A $1 salary with no other compensation except for some free devices would be a more meaningful gesture. He already has more money than he will ever spend in his remaining time. At this level these people aren’t driven by money anyway.

Steve Jobs only took a dollar in salary annually. Most of his compensation was in Apple stock. The fact that’s “off the table” or not being seriously considered is an obvious sign they expect the stock to continue tanking.
 
I agree with you 100%.

I love Tim Cook but it would be nice if someone else gets a chance to become the CEO of Apple. Someone who is not afraid of change, innovation and really enriching people's lives. Give others a chance!
It's also easy to say this when it's not one's money being flushed down the toilet in pursuit of the next big thing.

The only thing is that Apple isn't being very flashy about announcing moonshot projects that may well never see the light of day (not counting Airpower). Contrast this with the numerous projects that Google has launched and subsequently shuttered.

The thing is, Tim Cook has done an excellent job of addressing both the short and long term concerns of the company. It's a money making machine that is generating more free revenue than Apple has use for (which is why they are using share buybacks to return excess cash to shareholders), while at the same time continuing to work on new product categories.

Some believe it's a sign that Apple has gotten soft, but then you look at the state of many other tech companies who have floundered in the past few years and maybe safe and boring isn't necessarily such a bad thing in the greater scheme of things. At least I don't have to worry that iMessage will be shut down anytime soon.

I suspect that even if there were such a candidate available, the board may not approve of him either. Steve Jobs was not afraid to gamble the company's future on the iPhone because there was literally nothing left to lose. Things are different when you are running a 2-3 trillion dollar company responsible for employing hundreds of thousands of people. Apple continues to be disciplined in saying a thousand "no" for every "yes" and I feel that is a strength that continues to go under appreciated.
 
It's also easy to say this when it's not one's money being flushed down the toilet in pursuit of the next big thing.

The only thing is that Apple isn't being very flashy about announcing moonshot projects that may well never see the light of day (not counting Airpower). Contrast this with the numerous projects that Google has launched and subsequently shuttered.

The thing is, Tim Cook has done an excellent job of addressing both the short and long term concerns of the company. It's a money making machine that is generating more free revenue than Apple has use for (which is why they are using share buybacks to return excess cash to shareholders), while at the same time continuing to work on new product categories.

Some believe it's a sign that Apple has gotten soft, but then you look at the state of many other tech companies who have floundered in the past few years and maybe safe and boring isn't necessarily such a bad thing in the greater scheme of things. At least I don't have to worry that iMessage will be shut down anytime soon.

I suspect that even if there were such a candidate available, the board may not approve of him either. Steve Jobs was not afraid to gamble the company's future on the iPhone because there was literally nothing left to lose. Things are different when you are running a 2-3 trillion dollar company responsible for employing hundreds of thousands of people. Apple continues to be disciplined in saying a thousand "no" for every "yes" and I feel that is a strength that continues to go under appreciated.
I think Steve Jobs would still have gambled $2-3 trillion on new products. Loved his maverick style.

I remember stories of his iTunes negotiations with record labels. He would just walk in and say it’s 79-99 cents a song, take it or leave it lol.
 
Only $49 million? The last two years Cook made 100 million. He’s already got more than enough to live 100 lifetimes. It’s impossible to fathom that amount of money for the average person who is struggling day to day. I’m not against people making money, but when is enough enough?
True. But Tim's stewardship of Apple is at least creating hardware for millions, and creating millions for investors (with the exception of 2022 being a bad year for NASDAQ). You know what's worse than Tim Cook making $49 million?

Celebrity athletes making $120 million. Do you see them creating jobs for millions of workers like Tim Cook's Apple does? When those athletes make $120 million, do they create entire industries and labor force for a dozens countries? When a single celebrity athlete makes $120 million, does his work also create revenue for millions of developers, artists, musicians, fellow athletes, content producers? Doubtful.

Celeb athlete just makes all that money for himself (and maybe his family). Then he throws it all away on cocaine, prostitutes, Lambos, overpriced mansions, and Jack Daniels. Just ask what Mike Tyson did with his over $350 million in earnings.... only to declare bankruptcy a few years later.
 
Did a quick search and found out this guy got paid more than $46M in 2019 and still takes his Trapper Keeper to work:

7-benjamin-silbermann-pinterest-inc.png


(CEO of Pinterest)

Man... these salaries... Looking at this list in the link posted, the worst thing of all, the ratios between CEOs and all the rest of their companies is just way over the extreme. Varying between 120:1 up to almost 400:1 !!!
How about cutting that to no more than 25:1 ?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.