Apple CEO Tim Cook attends Apple's
Apple CEO Tim Cook took a voluntary pay cut for 2023.
  • Some big-company CEOs are taking significant cuts to their compensation packages.
  • The reductions come amid economic hardship across different industries, including Big Tech. 
  • Employees at some of the companies have seen their own salaries cut — or jobs eliminated.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
tim cook apple code
Cook at Code in 2022.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking a 40% pay cut in 2023, bringing his annual target salary to $49 million for the year, per documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January. 

The executive requested the pay reduction himself, coming on the heels of recent controversy surrounding his hefty salary. In 2022, Apple investors were urged to vote against Cook's nearly $100 million pay package by a shareholder advisory firm. 

The SEC filing references "concern" over Cook's total annual compensation in 2021 and 2022, noting the 2023 reduction comes amid "balancing shareholder feedback, a desire to continue to create meaningful performance and retention incentives, and Mr. Cook's support for changes." 

 

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan
Eric Yuan speaks onstage during the Dropbox Work In Progress Conference
Eric Yuan is the founder of Zoom Video Communications

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan wrote in a memo to staffers on February 7 that he will take a 98% pay cut in 2023 and forgo his corporate bonus. Members of the executive leadership team also will take a 20% salary reduction and skip bonuses this year, per his memo. 

"As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today — and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions," he wrote in the memo. 

The cuts come in tandem with the video communications company's announcement that it plans to layoff 15% of its employees, or about 1,300 staffers, according to the memo.  

"I know this is a difficult message to hear, and certainly not one I ever wanted to deliver," Yuan wrote.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
pat gelsinger
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Intel said on February 1 that CEO Pat Gelsinger would take a 25% pay reduction this year. It's part of an effort to cut costs at the company. Gelsinger will be joined by other top executives at the company, who also are seeing salary cuts ranging from 5% to 15%. 

"These changes are designed to impact our executive population more significantly and will help support the investments and overall workforce needed to accelerate our transformation and achieve our long-term strategy," an Intel spokesperson told Insider's Aidan Pollard. 

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon
David Solomon

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon saw a 30% pay cut in 2022, bringing his salary to $25 million.

Per a filing with the SEC, his base salary remained unchanged at $2 million, and he made $23 million in annual variable compensation, down from $33 million the year prior.  

The reduction came as the bank struggled against economic headwinds, and laid off 6.5% of its global workforce

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman
Morgan Stanley's CEO, James Gorman, testifies before a U.S. House committee in 2019
Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman, pictured testifying before a U.S. House committee in 2019.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman also saw a 10% pay cut in 2022, taking home a total of $31.5 million. 

The reduction is in response to "a challenging economic and market environment" which was "not as strong as the prior year in which the firm achieved record financial performance," the finance giant said, according to Bloomberg.

The company laid off 2% of its global workforce in 2022, or an estimated 81,000 employees. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai
CEO of Alphabet and Google Sundar Pichai in Warsaw, Poland on March 29, 2022

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, told employees in January that top executives will take a "very significant reduction in their annual bonus," but didn't specify by how much or for how long. 

Pichai told employees during an all-hands meeting the cuts are "tied directly to company performance," Insider's Rosalie Chan and Hugh Langley reported

His remarks came shortly after the company announced it is laying off 6% of its staffers, or an estimated 12,000 employees. In a memo obtained by Insider, Pichai wrote the reductions will "cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions." 

 

 

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan.

Though JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon received the same $34.5 million salary in 2022 as he did in 2021, last year marked a noticeable difference in that he was no longer given a "special award" worth millions. 

In an SEC filing in January, the JPMorgan board wrote it was "committed to not grant any special awards to him in the future." The effort followed outcry over his $84.4 million salary in 2021, $52.6 million of which came from options awards, according to Marketwatch

 

 

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