Tim Cook accepts a massive pay cut | CNN Business

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has agreed to take a pay cut this year after shareholders rebelled.

The world’s largest tech company said it would cut Cook’s target pay package to $49 million, 40 percent below his target salary for 2022 and about half of his $99.4 million total compensation of Cook which he granted him last year.

The vast majority of Cook’s compensation in 2022, about 75%, was tied to company stock, with half of that dependent on stock price performance.

But shareholders voted against Cook’s pay package after Apple’s shares fell nearly 27% last year. The vote is not binding, but the board’s compensation committee said it took the vote into account.

“The compensation committee balanced shareholder feedback, Apple’s exceptional performance and a recommendation by Mr. Cook to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received,” the company said in its published annual proxy statement. Thursday.

This year, the executive fee award target has been reduced to $40 million. About $30 million, or three-quarters, is linked to stock price performance.

Cook’s base salary of $3 million will remain the same, the company said, as will a $6 million bonus.

The board said it believes Cook’s new pay package “responds to shareholder feedback, while continuing to align pay with performance and recognizing Mr. Cook’s outstanding leadership.”

The tech boss, who has led Apple since 2011, is estimated to have a personal fortune of $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Apple’s share price, like other tech companies, fell last year as coronavirus lockdowns shut down some of its factories in China. Supply chain bottlenecks and fears that a global economic slowdown would dampen demand also dragged down its shares.

In January of last year, the tech giant became the first publicly traded company to hit $3 trillion in market capitalization, but has since lost nearly $1 billion of that value.