Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was the highest-paid CEO in the United States during 2011, according to a report from The New York Times (via Bloomberg). The report cited data from research firm Equilar who tracked executive compensation throughout the year.
To take home the top spot, Cook received about $378 million. That number includes his salary, perks, and bonuses of $1.8 million in addition to a one-time stock grant of $376.2 million that vests in 2016 and 2021. The report noted that stat works out to roughly a million dollars a day. However, many are taking issue with the number, because the majority of the money requires Cook to stay with the company for 10 years before receiving it…
Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt pointed out NYT’s claims of Cook making approximately $1 million a day in reality actually works out to $103,000 a day when taking the 10-year period into account. It is certainly a lot of money, but nowhere close to the stats shown in the graphic above that accompanied the NYT’s original story.
Following closely behind Cook is Oracle’s Larry Ellison with $77.6 million and former Apple executive Ron Johnson earning $53.3 million at his new role at J.C. Penney Co.
Cook has had an impressive year during his first as the officially appointed CEO. From when he took the job in August 2011, Apple’s stock has risen from approximately $375 to well over $600. Last month Apple’s market cap surpassed No. 2 Exxon with $514 billion, which is up from 321.07 billion on March 31, 2011. Earlier this year, Cook also netted $64 million from selling over 106,640 shares of restricted stock units that vested on March 24 after they were initially awarded in 2008.
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