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Maybe 2 bucks a year? Double the salary, I say!

Nov 16, 07 - 09:18 am Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

I hereby offer to pay his current salary. As the LOreal commercial says, 'he's worth it'

I say, he should take a full typical CEO base salary maybe 500k per year. Then donate it to a charity or set up a fund for education or something.

It's maybe time for him to have an iJet !!!
For my part, I'll sure accept an iJet Nano...

Nov 16, 07 - 09:40 am Comment from: Macaday

- SJ is motivated by leading Apple Inc. to world domination with the largest collection great products ever assembled by one business.

- It is obvious that he is NOT driven by acquiring wealth.

- A $ a year is a very loud statement against the huge greed of the Directors of Microsoft.

- He said it all in his Harvard address of course: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/itunes.stanford.edu.1292029264.01292029269.1292846299?i=1411599120

He's an exceptional guy no doubt. But (probably) best appreciated at a distance..!

"Well, Steve, you've done a pretty good job. We really like what you did with the music thing. So we're going to give you an 8% raise. That's 4% higher than average. Sound good? Great. Let's just work on getting here on time a little better, and try not to forget that paperwork, eh? Heh-heh-heh! Now, get back out there, buddy, and we'll see you at the meeting Friday morning."

Nov 16, 07 - 09:47 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

Double his salary. Nah, maybe a fiver.

He already HAS a jet! Apple "gave" him one 5 or 6 years ago.

Hey MacaDay, since when is Stanford spelled H-A-R-V-A-R-D?

Yeah double his pay.... to $2

The $1 salary is ceremonial; it is just enough to generate a W-2 form and to make him an employee. (I have a job with a $1 salary too.) By taking his compensation in stock options, his compensation is tied directly to the company's performance. When he first came back to Apple, it was a way of putting himself on the line and showing that he was serious about turning the company around.

Now that Apple is a huge success, I can see why people would want to give him a more conventional compensation package, but I don't see the point. Money is money, whichever way it comes, but the present setup keeps him motivated to keep improving Apple's performance.

Unless Apple is planning on settling in for a long corporate nap, there is no reason to change anything.

If he has 4.7B through Disney (Pixar), then it means that 'only' 1B of net worth can be attributed to 30+ years of Apple??? Not that that's chicken scratch by ANY means, but he IS Apple... thought he'd have more than that.
Mr. Bill has something like 60B.

yes, a 50% raise is called upon.

B.Gates dumped millions of shares of M$.

Jobs is the man, double his salary!
And let's go crazy with bonus this time, he could use a brand new A380.

Didn't he excercise some of his options recently?

I think the ceremonial $1 pa salary should stay. Partly because it makes a statement and also because I agree that his real reward ought to be tied to the companies success.

Perhaps they should award him without restriction a number of shares of company held stock on an annual basis, say 250,000 ordinary shares annually. At the current value it would be in line with top execs at many other companies and still well below some of the mega figures of some. Yes he would be taxed on it but it would be up to him as to either sell some of the shares to pay the tax or to dip into his own pocket to pay the tax and hang onto the shares.

Just an idea !!!

Nov 16, 07 - 10:36 am Comment from: The Other Steve

So, he gets paid if he does a great job and and gets one dollar if he doesn't.

Who would complain about that?

An A380? You mean like the one being bought by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal? A man who, like his country, got filthy rich on an accident of geology. Unlike our Steve who, together with many dedicated people, set out to change the world for the better.

Gates *has* sold much of his stock, and given even more away to his Foundation. I'd consider it a form of penance if I saw any indication he thought he'd done anything wrong.

Nov 16, 07 - 10:55 am Comment from: Macromancer

TWO DOLLARS!!!

Nov 16, 07 - 10:57 am Comment from: Macromancer

"An A380? You mean like the one being bought by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal? A man who, like his country, got filthy rich on an accident of geology"

Who also happens to hold a large number of AAPL shares.

Nov 16, 07 - 11:10 am Comment from: critic

"Didn't he excercise some of his options recently?"

Yes, but only to pay the taxes due on option that vested and that needed to be exercised or they would expire. Taxes are due when exercised. He had a $300 million tax bill due.

Also, as to the question raised about Steve having "'only' 1B of net worth can be attributed to 30+ years of Apple???", this is obviously someone who does not know the history of Apple.

Steve was forced out of the company and sold his shares. He then bought Pixar from George Lucas, and started Next Computers.

In bringing Steve back to the company, Apple bought Next.

You know what Steve did with Pixar.

In the end, all of his worth does stem from what he originally got out of Apple and how he invested that.

Nov 16, 07 - 11:12 am Comment from: Jubei

I say give him 10 billions dollars. Then he can take that money and install WiFi routers all over the US so that we can get WiFi on our iPhones and iPod Touch anywhere in the US. Set it up so that it will work with Mac only for free, no ads. The rest like Windows users have to PAY!!!

Nov 16, 07 - 11:21 am Comment from: Vlad

I don't see the point. Not as if he needs the cash desperately or something.

Nov 16, 07 - 12:05 pm Comment from: critic

@vlad

Even if you don't "need" the cash, you would probably take it, especially if it was earned by performance.

Apple stock is #2 for total returns over the past 10 years and has created $150 billion in value for investors. This is largely because of Steve, and he deserves something for it, whether he needs it or not. It is a matter of fairness. If he doesn't need it he can give it away to charity like Bill Gates does. (Whether or not Gates deserves his wealth is a whole other discussion)

Nov 16, 07 - 12:34 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

Steve deserves every bit as much as any MS exec makes, and even more so because he wouldn't take it. His compensation is tied to the performance of his company in a way that other CEOs could learn from.

When I worked for (game publisher owned by major toy company), the CEO of said toy company once took a salary of $1.2M, and was given a bonus of $965K. This was a year when the company didn't meet sales targets, and regular employees lost their annual bonus. The game division that I worked for did, in fact, make their targets, exceeded them, actually, but we were not rewarded for it. Our regular (generous) performance-based bonus was replaced by a static holiday bonus (basically an extra check), in a sleazy shell-game of accounting tricks. The upshot of all this is that in a year when my division did well, I lost thousands while our fearless leader took home an extra million.

It's that sort of thing that really makes your employees hate you and not feel the need to work very hard for you. It amazes me that so few executives understand this,

Nov 16, 07 - 01:35 pm Comment from: Crabapple

Hear hear! ChrissyOne.

I'm bummed that he owns such a small share of Apple. He should own a lot more.

Nov 16, 07 - 01:54 pm Comment from: Timbo

Bingo, C1.

I agree with ChrissyOne! But I think mike_in_helsinki has a great idea! Wouldn't it be a great big thank you if all of us Mac users each gave $1 to Steve! I think he has earned at least $1 from me for what he has done for Apple in particular and computing in general. And what he has done has improved my life by at least $1.

Everybody send Steve $1!

Nov 16, 07 - 05:19 pm Comment from: Olmecmystic

PAY the man. Every time I see the Forbes 400 with Gates at or near the top and Steve buried in the hundreds, it honestly galls me.

Gulfstreams are nice, options are great, and I know Steve himself doesn't care and would never say anything, but Apple really needs to "break him off proper", especially with the 12-month period Apple has just had and the next few years they're positioned for.

He shouldn't have to BUY a yacht; Apple should GIVE him one that features satellite wireless (for worldwide access), Xserves, etc., and the most righteous, bangin' speakers so he can jam and run Apple from wherever he happens to be. Call it the "Truly Mac'n".

Come on, Apple. Do the right thing!

Peace.
Olmecmystic

Steve Jobs is worth it.

He has definately proved it year after year.

Lets be real here. Sure from payroll he earns a dollar.
But he also earns stock options.That is also payment.

Best sale man ever. SJ.

In all reality it probably reflects Steve's view that the big gains to be made from Apple stock options are over, and he'd rather have some cash in the mix too.

As far as compensation goes, Steve got paid 650 million one way or another over the last 5 years. With Steve taking home the equivalent of about 10% of what Apple made in that time, he's been doing OK.

Steve's had his snout down the in the Apple options trough for so long, And for many years the ignorant have touted the "$1 salary" which really turns out to be $122 million/year.

Why now has he had a change of heart?