Tim Cook’s salary allows him to buy a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars every two days

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Tim Cook’s salary allows him to buy a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars every two days

While Americans are watching their food budgets and postponing big purchases, top executives are receiving record-breaking salaries. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, earns more than the average American's annual income in less than a workday.

Apple, now a $4.1 trillion tech giant, has come a long way since going public 45 years ago. Under Cook's leadership, it has become the world's second-largest company by market capitalization, and this is reflected in his salary.

Cook's annual salary rose to $74.6 million in 2024, an 18% increase from $63.2 million the previous year, according to a Fortune report. Cook’s massive compensation package consists of $58.1 million in stock options, $12 million in non-stock-related bonuses, and $1.5 million in other compensation.

Despite being one of the highest-paid CEOs in the world today, his current compensation is nothing compared to what he earned previously. In 2022, Cook earned nearly $100 million, mostly from stock options, but his salary was reduced the following year after backlash from Apple employees and shareholders.

When compared to the average American, the difference is striking. With a compensation package of $74.6 million, Cook needs to work only about seven hours a day to earn more than the average American worker, whose annual salary is $62,088.

According to wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the first quarter of 2025, in just 30 minutes—the time it takes most people to get to their offices—Cook has already earned an extra $4,256, more than most Americans have saved for emergencies.

While it can take Americans decades to save enough to buy a home, the Apple CEO can afford one in just one weekend. Cook needs about 2.15 days to accumulate $439,000, the average price of a home in the U.S.

According to a new CEO compensation calculator from Resume.io, even buying his own company's products—which are considered luxuries for most people, costing thousands of dollars—is a relatively small financial burden.

In just 21 minutes, Cook earns enough to buy a $3,000 MacBook Pro. In less than eight minutes, he could buy an iPhone 17 Pro worth $1,100. Cook was the seventh highest-paid CEO in the United States, just behind Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose income was $79.1 million.