Apple bosses see pay drop in 2016 as CEO reaps $145 million

Apple Inc.’s top executives saw their compensation fall last year while Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had his biggest payout yet from his record 2011 award. Cook’s five top lieutenants received about $22.8 million each for 2016, according to a proxy statement filed Friday. The pay packages included $2.8 million in salary and cash bonus, and $20 million in equity awards. Cook’s $8.75 million disclosed compensation for fiscal 2016, including a $3 million salary and $5.37 million cash bonus, doesn’t account for 1.26 million shares delivered from the big award he received after becoming Apple’s CEO. They were worth about $136 million when they vested - the biggest distribution Cook has received in a single year from the award. The value of the shares isn’t included in the proxy filing’s summary compensation table since it only lists new equity grants. The windfall is a huge jump from 2015 when the CEO received $10 million in salary and bonus, and $64.2 million in stock from his 2011 promotion award. The bulk of the shares for fiscal 2016 weren’t tied to performance and therefore not at risk of forfeiture even as Apple reported its first annual sales decline since 2001. Recent versions of the iPhone, Apple’s biggest revenue generator, haven’t inspired automatic upgrades the way earlier models did. Competitors in China are churning out cheaper devices while developed countries are reaching the saturation point. (Anders Melin/Bloomberg)