Tim Cook, the CEO got a compensation of around seventy four point three million dollars in the year twenty twenty five. The compensation package, for Tim Cook includes a salary of three million dollars, which is a fixed amount of cash and the rest of the money a really big part comes from stock awards and some other things that Tim Cook gets.

Kevan Parekh, the Chief Financial Officer is Apples chief financial officer. His pay for 2025 is around twenty two million dollars. This is what the company said in the papers they gave out. They said Kevan Parekh gets a salary of one million dollars starting from January 1 2025.. When you look at how they did the accounting, for the year you see that Kevan Parekhs total pay is made up of his salary and the stock awards and incentive pay he gets as the Chief Financial Officer of Apple.

Sabih Khan is the Chief Operating Officer at Apple. He is pretty new to this role, which he started in 2025. The total amount of money he gets is also, in the tens of millions. Reports say he gets $27 million. This is because he gets a lot of money from stock awards and incentive payouts. Apples Chief Operating Officer gets paid a lot of money.

The numbers you see at the top are the ones that Apple puts in the papers they file with the government and that you read about in the news. These numbers are what people talk about when they discuss how much Apple pays its leaders. The rest of this explanation is going to break down what these Apple numbers really mean. It will explain why Apple stock awards are such a part of the deal and why the Apple CEO salary number can be confusing.

Where do these numbers come from I mean what is the main place that they originally come from the source of these numbers?

Public companies in the United States of America have to tell people how much they pay their executives every year. They do this in a report called a proxy statement, which they file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apples proxy statement has a part called the Summary Compensation Table. This table adds up how much each of the executives at Apple got paid for the year. It includes their salary and any bonuses they got. It also includes stock awards, which’s the value of the stocks they got when they were given to them. The table has things too like money from special incentive plans and changes in the value of their pensions. There is a category for any other kind of compensation that the executives got which is called “all other compensation”. The Summary Compensation Table is a way for Apple to show how much they pay their executives like the executives, at Apple. That table is the basis for the media summaries and for the headline totals above.

The total amount you see in the Summary Compensation Table is not actually the amount of money the executive got that year. It is a number that accountants use to show the value of the awards and other things they got. A big part of what CEOs get paid today comes from something called RSUs. Restricted stock units and performance RSUs. These are reported as being worth an amount when they are given but the executive does not actually get that money until later. The amount of money they get from these units depends on a things like if they are still working at the company, what the stock price is and if they did a good job. The total in the Summary Compensation Table is an accounting number it is not the same, as the cash the executive received that year.

Why Tim Cook’s package is ~$74M — breakdown & mechanics

Apple disclosures and news stories from places, like Bloomberg and MacRumors all show the thing: Apple always does things in a certain way.

The way Apple reports things and the way these news outlets write about Apple is very similar.

This is what you see when you look at Apple disclosures and what Bloomberg and MacRumors have to say about Apple.

Base salary: $3 million (a stable, relatively small fixed-cash component for Apple’s CEO).

The biggest part of the 74 million dollars is, in stock awards. This includes time-based and performance-based RSUs. When you look at news summaries you see that the value of these stock awards is around 57 to 58 million dollars. This is the value that is used for accounting on the day the stocks were given out. These values are used in the tables that the SEC looks at. They follow the rules of financial accounting. The stock awards are a part of the 74 million dollars.

The company has a plan to give people extra money. This plan is called the non-equity incentive plan compensation. It is a bonus that people get at the end of the year. They get this bonus when they do a job with money and other things that the company cares about. Apple tells us how money the important people get from this plan. For Tim Cook the bonus is not as big, as the money he gets from stock.

Apple gives some money to people for things like security and traveling on private planes. This money is also used for taxes and some other things. The amount of money is not very big it is usually a hundred thousand dollars or a few million dollars. It depends on the year. What the company decides. For example Tim Cook got some money but not a lot compared to the money he got from stock. Some people said he got 1.7 million dollars, for security and private air travel in the year 2025. Apple tells us about this money in their reports.

Two technical but crucial points:

The value of the stock when the Restricted Stock Units are given out is what is written down in the papers. If the price of the stock goes up a lot between the time the Restricted Stock Units are given out and the time they can be used the person who gets them will probably get money than what is written down.. If the price of the stock goes down they will get less money. The papers try to show this in a way, which is called Compensation Actually Paid. However the number that most people talk about is the number, in the Summary Compensation Table. Apple explains both of these ideas in their filing. The Restricted Stock Units are a thing to consider when looking at the value of the stock. The Restricted Stock Units and their value can be a bit confusing. Apples filing helps to make it clearer.

Performance conditions and retirement rules are important for Cooks awards. He gets performance-based awards that have goals he needs to meet over years. Some of these awards have rules that apply if he retires. This means that the total amount he gets at the end depends on whether he meets his targets over a years. Some of his awards are set up to work differently if he decides to retire. The proxy talks, about the Rule of 60/10 and how retirement affects the awards for accounting and CAP calculation. Cooks awards have rules that say how they are treated when he retires.

Kevan Parekh is the finance chief. His pay is something people are talking about. We need to look at the context to understand why his pay is so high. The reason Kevan Parekhs number looks sizeable is because of the context. Kevan Parekhs pay is big when we compare it to others. We should consider the context of Kevan Parekhs role to understand his pay.

Kevan Parekh became the Chief Financial Officer of Apple starting January 1 2025. This means he got a new job, at Apple during the fiscal year. So the proxy statement has to include his salary but only for part of the year. When Kevan Parekh started as the Chief Financial Officer his base salary went up to one million dollars starting January 1 2025. The proxy statement also talks about the Apple equity grants that Kevan Parekh got and the incentive payouts he received from Apple for the year. The media says that Apples proxy report shows that the total amount of money this person got is around twenty two million dollars for the year. This number includes the money he got from stock awards, which can be a lot of money because the company gives these awards to people so they want the same things as the people who own the company. It also includes the cash he got for doing a good job and the money he got from his salary. The total amount of money is twenty two million dollars, for Apples disclosure year. It is made up of the stock awards and the cash incentive awards and the salary component of Apple.

Why do the salaries of Chief Financial Officers get so high? The pay of a Chief Financial Officer is really big. We want to know why the pay of a Chief Financial Officer reaches that level.

New executives often get a one-time gift of company stock when they join. This gift is usually a mix of stock that they get over time and stock that they get if the company does well. The company puts the value of this gift in a report, on the day it is given. This can make it look like the executive got a lot money in the first year than they really did.

The base salary for a Silicon Valley CEO or a Silicon Valley CFO is not that high it is one million dollars which is what many big tech company executives get. But the thing that really matters is the Silicon Valley CEO or Silicon Valley CFO equity and the incentives that come with the job these are what make the news, about the Silicon Valley CEO or Silicon Valley CFO salary.

Sabih Khan — operations chief: why his number is also in the millions

Sabih Khan moved into the COO role in 2025. He took over from Jeff Williams as part of a planned change. Now Sabih Khan is in the proxy with pay around twenty five million dollars. This total pay is made up of a things. Sabih Khan gets a salary of one million dollars. This is what Apple usually pays some of its people. He also gets stock awards. Apple often gives a lot of these awards to its leaders who are in charge of operations and products. Sabih Khan gets -equity incentives too. These are all part of his pay, at Apple. In short: salary + stock awards + cash incentives = the total.

The way Apple is run is important to think about when we look at how they pay people and how the people who own part of the company the shareholders keep an eye on things. Apple pays people in a way and the shareholders have a say, in how the company is run. This is what we mean by the governance angle of Apple and how they pay people and the role of shareholder oversight.

* The people who own part of Apple, the shareholders want to know why the company pays people in a way.

1. The way Apple pays people is connected to the way the company is run.

The governance angle of Apple and how they pay people is something that the shareholders care about because they want to make sure the company is being run in a way. Apple and the way they pay people is something that the shareholders think about a lot.

Big companies that make technology are using company shares, shares that are based on how well the company does, as the main way to pay their top bosses. The reasons, for this are:

When a company does well the people in charge of the company like the executives do well too. This is because their pay is tied to the companys stock price. So when the stock price goes up the executives get money. The company also looks at how it is doing over a long period of time not just right now. This means the executives have a reason to make sure the company keeps doing for a long time. The executives have an interest in the company, which means they want the company to do well so they can do well too. This is called alignment, with shareholder value, which means the executives and the shareholders the people who own the companys stock want the thing.

Retention and succession planning is really important. We want our top people to stick around for a time. So we give them something called multi-year RSUs. This is a way to encourage executives to stay with the company for many years. They can work on projects that take a lot of time to complete like making new products or changing how we get supplies. We are also talking about research and development initiatives for example something, like Apple Intelligence. These projects are huge. Take many years to finish. The multi-year RSUs help our executives think about the term and not just what is happening right now. This way they can really focus on making our company better and help us achieve our goals.

The job market is really competitive. Apple has to compete with big technology companies to get the best people to work for them. These people are good, at running things and handling money. To attract them Apple usually offers them a share of the company, which’s a common thing to do in this field. Apple and other big technology companies like to give these shares as part of the pay package because that’s what everyone else is doing.

When it comes to pay the people who own shares in a company and the companies that help them make decisions are really interested, in making sure that the pay is fair. Apple talks about how it decides what to pay people how it compares to companies and how it measures performance in a special part of the information it gives to shareholders. This part is called the Compensation Discussion and Analysis. Apple uses this to explain why it gave rewards to people and how these rewards are connected to the companys long-term goals, like the goals of Apple. Apple wants to make sure that the people who own shares in Apple understand why it made these decisions about pay for the people who work at Apple. The proxy also includes a vote for shareholders on how much the people in charge of Apple should get paid. This vote is not a rule it is just to see what the shareholders think. In the past most shareholders have agreed with what Apple proposed.. Sometimes people who care about how companies are run question some parts of the plan like how big the awards should be, what the people in charge have to do to get them and what extra things they should get. The proxy is about Apple and what the shareholders think about the people, in charge of Apple and their pay.

Public perception and the politics of executive pay

Some things affect how people react when they see news headlines, about Chief Executive Officers making tens of millions.

When we talk about optics versus mechanics the number seventy four million dollars sounds really big in a headline. It is a lot of money compared to what most workers get paid.. What this number is made of is really important. A lot of it is stock that the person will get over time and only if they do a job.

Apples proxy statement also shows us how much the CEO gets paid compared to the employee. In the past Apple has said this ratio is hundreds to one for its employee. This information gets people talking about if thiss fair and if companies are being responsible. The optics, versus mechanics of seventy four million dollars is something to think about. Apples situation is an example of this.

Tim Cook has said that he wants to give away all his money while he’s still alive. He has been saying this for a time. This is something that people talk about when they think about how money he makes.

Most of the time people are concerned about how companies are run and if the money that important people like Tim Cook get is really because of the good work they do for the company. The main thing people care about is if the people, in charge of the company are doing a job and getting paid fairly for it. Tim Cook and his money are still a topic of discussion when it comes to how he gets paid and if it is fair.

People pay attention to taxes and regulations: When executives get a lot of money it raises questions about taxes for the executive and for the company. This is because people want to know if the company can deduct the payouts from their taxes. Sometimes lawmakers suggest rules to stop executives from getting too much money or to make companies tell people more about what they are paying. Apple follows the rules that the Securities and Exchange Commission already has in place, for telling people about pay.. When executives get a lot of money from Apple it gets noticed by politicians and the media.

Market context in 2025: why Apple’s pay matters now

The timing of pay disclosures is really important. In 2025 Apple was trying to figure some things out:

When a company comes out with versions of things like when Apple talks about the new iPhone 17 in the news

Shifting focus toward “Apple Intelligence” and AI features, and

Leadership transitions (CFO and COO changes).

People in charge like Parekh who handles the money and Khan who handles the day to day work play a part in helping Apple get through tough times. This is why the board might give them a lot of Apple stock that they can only get in a years. The reason for this is to make sure that what the executives want is the same as what Apple wants for the few years. Apple wants to make sure they can handle problems with getting the things they need to make their products and that the money they spend on intelligence pays off. They also want to make sure they are using the money they get from shareholders in a way. Investors pay attention to what the executives get because it tells them what Apple is going to focus on in the future. Apple is very careful about what they do with the money they get from shareholders. The executives, like Parekh and Khan have Apple stock that they will get in a years and this helps Apple make sure they are working towards the same goals.

Numbers — a concise (citation-backed) recap

Tim Cook gets a total of 74.3 million dollars for the year. This is what the company says in their report. Tim Cooks base salary is 3 million dollars. Most of the money Tim Cook gets is, from equity awards.

Kevan Parekh reported that he got around twenty two million dollars to twenty two point five million dollars in compensation for the year. This information is from the media summaries. It is also in the proxy. The total compensation includes the money he got from equity grants and incentive pay. His base salary is one million dollars. This started on January 1 2025. The total compensation, for Kevan Parekh is a combination of these things.

Sabih Khan: Reported total compensation in the ~$27 million range in media summaries, again driven by stock awards and incentive payouts.

These are the numbers that Apple talks about in their statement. Other people like Bloomberg and MacRumors and 9to5mac have looked at these numbers. Written about them. If you want to see all the details you can look at the proxy statement, for Apple. It has all the tables and extra notes.

If you want to learn more about these disclosures here is what you can do.

You will need to read these disclosures to dig deeper and find the information you are looking for.

These disclosures are, like a book that has a lot of details in it so you have to take your time to read these disclosures and understand what they are saying about these disclosures.

You can start by looking at the parts of these disclosures that interest you the most. Then you can read the rest of these disclosures to get a better understanding of what these disclosures are talking about.

These disclosures are very important. It is a good idea to read these disclosures slowly and carefully to make sure you understand what these disclosures are saying.

If you want to check something out or look really closely at the details of something you should try to verify or explore the points of the thing you are looking at which, in this case is what we are talking about so you can verify or explore the finer points.

You should read the Apple proxy statement. It is called Form DEF 14A. This document has a lot of information. The Summary Compensation Table is in it. You will also find Grants of Plan-Based Awards and Outstanding Equity Awards. The proxy statement also has the CD&A section. This part explains why the board made decisions. The regulators really depend on this one document, from Apple.

When we talk about the value of something we have two things to consider: the “grant-date fair value” and the “compensation actually paid”. The proxy statement explains what these terms mean. The “grant-date fair value” is the value that companies use when they have to disclose information. On the hand the “compensation actually paid” is a special measure that tries to show how the economic value of something changes over time. This “compensation paid” measure is not the main value used for accounting but it is useful because it gives us a better idea of what is really going on with the companys compensation. The “grant-date fair value” and the “compensation actually paid” are two ways to look at the same thing and they can give us different insights into the companys financial situation.

You should really check the footnotes. Compensation tables have these long and important footnotes. They explain things like deferred compensation and special one-time awards. They also talk about perquisites and retirement eligibility features. These things can actually change how you understand the totals that you see in the headlines. The footnotes are important because they give you information, about compensation tables.

So what does it all come down to. The line is what this means

The Apple 2025 proxy statement has some numbers for the senior executives at Apple.. Most of the value of the Apple senior executives compensation is based on equity. This means the value of the compensation for the executives at Apple is tied to the performance of Apple in the long term. The idea behind this is to make sure the leaders of Apple want the things, as the people who own Apple.

The move of Parekh to the Chief Financial Officer role and Sabih Khan becoming the Chief Operating Officer is the reason for some stock grants that increased the total amount of stock they got in the year that was reported. This happened because of the change in their roles. The shift of Parekh into the Chief Financial Officer role and Sabih Khan’s move, to the Chief Operating Officer role explains these one-time stock grants that bump up the amount of stock they got.

These disclosures will continue to be debated: investors care about alignment and governance; employees and the public care about fairness and income gaps; policymakers may revisit tax and disclosure rules. For anyone tracking Apple, the proxy is the authoritative source and reporting from Bloomberg / major tech outlets provides useful summaries and context.