Now this is the real Apple Pay!

By all accounts, 2019 was a pretty spectacular year for Apple, its customers and investors. The stock rose 89% during the 12 months and Apple made some changes to the iPhone that its fans were hoping to see. The camera was taken to another level with Night Mode, the addition of an ultra-wide lens, the use of computational photography with Deep Fusion and the introduction of Slowfies (a slow-motion selfie video). Apple also made the new models sturdier and enhanced the phones' water resistance. And battery life, once Apple's Achilles heel, is now one of the iPhone's strong suits.
Apple failed to exceed certain targets by the same amount it did in 2018
As a result of the lower target payout, Cook's bonus dropped to $7.67 million last year from $12 million the year before. The document filed with the SEC by Apple also notes that the company covered the $457,083 it cost for the executive's personal security services and another $315,311 in air travel that Apple paid. Also, a contribution of $16,800 was made by Apple to Cook's 401(k) retirement plan.
Cook's non-equity compensation came to $11.56 million compared to the previous year's $15.7 million. But that is all a drop in the bucket compared to the $113.5 million in Apple stock that vested for Cook in 2019. Adding up the executive's salary, bonus and vesting shares, Apple's CEO took in over $125 million last year. That figure was down from the $136 million he pocketed in 2018. By one computation, since becoming CEO in 2011 following the death of Steve Jobs, Cook has banked $963.5 million.
Three Apple executives were awarded lower bonuses last year because of the lower target payout. Chief financial officer Luca Maestri, chief operating officer Jeff Williams and general counsel Kate Adam had their non-equity bonuses reduced from $4 million to $2.6 million for 2019. However, all three received total pay of approximately $25.2 million last year.
Compare the pay received by these executives (including Tim Cook) to the median compensation received by an Apple employee last year of $57,596. That was up from the $55,426 median compensation received last year by those working for the company. Based on Tim Cook's non-equity compensation, the CEO made 201 times the amount of the 2019 median paycheck at Apple.