Apple Paid CEO Tim Cook ‘Just’ $4.17 Million in 2012

Tim Cook may run the most valuable company in the world, but you wouldn’t know it from his pay this year.

The Apple CEO made just $4.17 million in 2012, according to a new SEC filing from Apple. That is certainly a salary many workers would be happy to have, but it represents a 99% decline from the $376 million Cook was paid last year.

That may come as a surprise at first considering that Apple’s market cap has grown to more than $480 billion this year under Cook’s leadership, but the decline in his pay is due to a technicality rather than anything to do with his performance.

Cook was granted a massive amount of stock options totaling more than $376 million when he was promoted to CEO in 2011, much of which will vest in the coming years. Given that, Apple’s Compensation Committee decided not to grant Cook any additional stock options this year, which is why his pay out appears so much lower.

Still, it’s a striking drop in pay, especially when you consider that several other top Apple executives who work under Cook made more than 10x as much as him this year thanks to the stock options they were awarded.