Apple's (AAPL) Jobs Worked For $1, But Owns 5.5 Million Shares

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), is doing fine, financially. He took a salary of just $1 last year but owns 5.546 million Apple shares. The stock trades above $200, so Jobs has over $1 billion invested in the company.

The Apple proxy also reports that most of the firm’s top people have to rely on stock holdings and options to do well. Apple N0.2 executive Tim Cook had a base of only $750,000 last year and got an $800,000 bonus. Next year his base will rise to $800,000.

The top four executives other than Jobs had base salaries averaging only $600,000 for 2009, but Cook and the managers who run hardware and software, Peter Oppenehimer and Scott Forstall, each were granted over 12 million stock options.

The only really interesting point in the Apple proxy is that the company’s board wants to increase shares available for employee compensation by 36 million. Apple clearly thinks that it will be richly rewarding management going forward. The proposal for the share increase will certainly pass.

Douglas A. McIntyre