Tim Cook gets 74pc bonus boost after earnings rebound

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc. chief executive officer Tim Cook received a 74% increase in his annual bonus for fiscal 2017 as the iPhone maker posted higher revenue and net income, after a rare decline a year earlier.

Cook's incentive pay totaled $9.33 million for the year ended 30 September, the Cupertino, California-based company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing. He also took home $3.06 million in salary and a previously disclosed equity award of $89.2 million, bringing his total payout for the year to about $102 million. His top five lieutenants each got bonuses of $3.11 million, bringing their total compensation to about $24.2 million each, including salaries and stock awards. The equity compensation is composed of shares that vest solely based on the executives' continued employment and others tied to the performance of Apple's stock compared with other S&P 500 companies.

Apple has increased the proportion of performance shares in its equity awards, which boosts potential future earnings for the executives if the company outperforms its S&P 500 peers. History suggests that could be a good deal for them.

In 2014, executives, including Dan Riccio, chief of hardware engineering, and former General Counsel Bruce Sewell, received performance awards that paid out three years later at almost twice as many target shares as planned after Apple's stock returned 69% over that span, including reinvested dividends. In August, Cook collected 560,000 shares when part of his 2011 mega-award vested because Apple outshined more than two-thirds of the S&P 500 over three years. For the first time, Cook ran up a $93,109 bill for travelling on a private aircraft on non-business-related trips. The Apple board stipulated this year that for security reasons the CEO should use private planes for business and personal travel.