Apple chief gets US$4.25m paycheque

Apple chief executive Tim Cook received compensation valued at US$4.25 million this year, a 1.9 per cent increase over 2012, even as the iPhone maker's stock gains lagged the S&P 500 Index.

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Published: 1:27am, 30 Dec 2013

Apple chief executive Tim Cook received compensation valued at US$4.25 million this year, a 1.9 per cent increase over 2012, even as the iPhone maker's stock gains lagged the S&P 500 Index.

The package included a salary of US$1.4 million and US$2.8 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation for the financial year to September, the California-based company said in a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States.

Cook is contending with thinning margins and slowing sales growth as rival gadget-makers such as Samsung Electronics and Amazon.com take on Apple with lower-priced devices. After outperforming the S&P 500 for four consecutive years, Apple shares have gained 5.3 per cent this year, compared with the index's 29 per cent advance.

Apple tapped Cook, a 15-year company veteran, to run the business before the death of his predecessor, Steve Jobs, in 2011. Cook received compensation that year of US$378 million, one of the biggest pay packages on record, boosted by US$376.2 million in stock awards that he will get over a decade.

In 2013, Cook forfeited more than 7,000 restricted stock units because of the company's stock performance to August from August 2012, the filing said. That was part of his 2011 agreement.

Cook's top deputies - Peter Oppenheimer, Eddy Cue and Jeff Williams - all received much smaller pay packages in 2013 than in 2012 because they were granted restricted stock units last year, which are given to officers other than the chief executive every two years.