Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed to a 50% pay cut, down to $49 million, after shareholders put the subject to a vote.
Last year, Cook earned $84 million in compensation through $75 million in stock awards, $6 million in annual bonuses and $3 million as his salary, which has remained the same since 2016, the tech company said in an SEC filing on Thursday.
Nearly 64% of shareholders approved that compensation, down 95% from 2020 during the say-on-pay vote, according to CNBC.
This year, his base salary and annual bonus will remain the same, but his earnings through stock value will cap at $40 million.
“Balancing shareholder feedback, a desire to continue to create meaningful performance and retention incentives, and Mr. Cook’s support for changes to his compensation to reflect the feedback received, the compensation committee maintained the cash components of Mr. Cook’s 2023 compensation and reduced his target equity award grant value,” Apple said.
According to The Guardian, the company’s shares have fallen by 23% in the past year, currently valued at $133.41.
In the feedback, shareholders acknowledged the hard task of finding peers similar to Cook for setting a compensation benchmark, but Apple’s performance and size make the task challenging. The CEO also proved to be a great leader but the shareholders still “strongly supported the philosophy, structure, and pay for performance alignment,” the filing stated.