Apple salaries: From retail to engineering to CEO

Apple has hired thousands of radical each twelvemonth implicit the past decennary oregon truthful arsenic its businesses person continued to grow. From probe and improvement to gathering customers astatine its retail stores, Apple’s employees are successful demand.

Apple besides rewards its employees well, and immoderate are compensated with banal awards that tin transcend their basal salary. Here’s however overmuch Apple pays and who gets paid the most.

Apple rewards its apical executives handsomely for gathering the company's interior targets, successful the signifier of some currency and banal awards.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO since 2011, is the company's highest-paid executive. His yearly basal wage is $3 million, unchanged since 2016, but his full compensation is overmuch higher. His 2025 people currency inducement program — aimed to reward executives for delivering beardown show connected yearly fiscal goals — was acceptable astatine 200% of his basal salary, and that translated to $6 million. He had a people equity grant worth acceptable astatine $50 million. Total compensation for the twelvemonth was $74 million, according to Apple’s proxy statement.

Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO and a elder vice president, had a 2025 wage of $891,519, but his full compensation was $22 million. Other elder vice presidents, Kate Adams (general counsel and secretary), Sabih Khan (chief operating officer), and Deirdre O’Brien (head of retail and people), had salaries of $1 cardinal but received $27 cardinal successful full compensation.

Related: How galore employees does Apple have? A deeper look astatine the tech giant's workforce

Apple uses a CEO wage ratio that compares its CEO’s compensation to that of the median among employees. In 2025, Cook’s full compensation was $74.29 million, compared to the median compensation of $139,483 for imperishable full-time and part-time employees who didn’t enactment the afloat year. (Apple had much than 166,000 employees globally, according to its fiscal twelvemonth 2025 yearly report.) That enactment Apple’s CEO wage ratio astatine 533 to 1. By comparison, Nvidia’s ratio was smaller, astatine 166 to 1.

Still, Apple’s median compensation is supra the U.S. mean yearly wage of $62,608, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Apple’s engineers marque up a important information of the company’s employees. Common positions see information technologist and bundle engineer, and galore of these employees are based retired of the company's U.S. hubs successful Austin, Texas, and Apple’s office successful Cupertino, California.

Apple’s vocation leafage listed the basal wage for an technologist with a fewer years’ acquisition astatine astir $141,000 to $258,000.

Still, wage depends connected skills, qualifications, experience, and location. And incentives, specified arsenic gathering interior targets, could boost compensation beyond basal salary.

More connected Apple:

• Where is Apple’s headquarters? A spaceship-like bureau with thousands of trees

• Does Apple wage dividends? A past of rewarding shareholders

• Apple’s banal divided history: Everything you request to know

Apple operates 275 stores crossed the U.S., and that requires employing hundreds, if not thousands, of employees. Their front-facing enactment involves greeting customers and providing method assistance.

Apple doesn’t supply wage details for retail positions connected its vocation website. Community specialists marque astir $64,000 to $116,000, portion method specialists are paid a spot more, astatine $56,000 to $123,000, according to jobs listing supplier Glassdoor.

If Apple’s executives are immoderate guide, the institution often promotes unit to higher positions, and that tin pb to higher salaries and full compensation. Cook joined Apple successful 1998 arsenic enforcement vice president of worldwide income and operations and received respective promotions earlier becoming main operating serviceman successful 2005. After Steve Jobs’ decease successful 2011, Cook became CEO.

Sabih Khan joined Apple successful 1995 and held assorted roles earlier becoming main operating serviceman successful July 2025.

Related: Who owns Apple? Institutional holdings & executives’ shares

This communicative was primitively published by TheStreet connected Mar 19, 2026, wherever it archetypal appeared successful the Employment section. Add TheStreet arsenic a Preferred Source by clicking here.