Apple’s Steve Jobs 2009 salary is $1
Apple’s iconic CEO Steve Jobs once again took only a single dollar in salary for the current year, during which he took a six-month medical leave while still leading the company to record revenues.
That is the customary salary for Jobs, who also refuses reimbursement for many perks that many other CEOs take. Jobs also does not get a bonus. He does, of course, profit when Apple’s stock prices rises, as he is a founder and major shareholder in the company. Even through his medical leave, during which he received a liver transplant, Apple fared fairly well in the press and in the marketplace. It could probably be safely said that the iPod, the iPhone, and Steve Jobs brought Apple back from the brink of mediocrity, or unrecognized brilliance, depending on your point of view.
Apple’s stock prices have soared as a result, and that does a good job of making up for the normal CEO salary, bonuses, and perks. Jobs owns 5.5 million of Apple’s shares, according to an AP story, which are worth $1,149,500,000 as of this moment. There is every chance a million-dollar salary for Jobs would wind up in the family petty cash account. As an aside, Jobs also has a huge share of Disney, worth about $4.5 billion. One can almost see the dreams dancing in his head of sugarplums and Mickey Mouse with an iPhone.
Although Jobs very clearly does not need a salary, it is heartwarming to see a CEO living on what he can do for his company. Yeah, sure, it’s difficult to relate to that kind of wealth, but most CEOs that I know about would be happy to nick the company for another few million bucks in salaries and bonuses whether the company they were running was doing well or not. Jobs is at least taking the more ethical course: if the company he is running does well, he does well. If not, he gets nothing. If all CEOs had to work compensation that way, there would not be much of a problem with CEO egos, which is a real lesson in bad ethics as it stands today.
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