Apple’s Executive Compensation Plans

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs was given his usual $1 annual salary in 2009, but Apple Inc.’s strength through a very tough economy returned the value of his personal holdings in the company is now chump change compared to last year. Apple said that they reimbursed Jobs $4,000 for company travel on his $90 million Gulfstream V jet, which he received as a bonus in 1999, a far cry from the $871,000 Apple reimbursed him with in 2008.

Unfortunately, Jobs took almost 6 months off this year due to a liver transplant, but returned to work part-time at the California offices at the end of June.

Jobs holds 5.5 million shares of Apple’s stock, and has not sold any since 1997, nor has he been awarded any new equity since 2003.

In 2008, the value of his stake in the company was cut in half because investors were worried that Apple’s expensive items might not do well with the way the economy was turning. However, shares gained about 42% during the 2009 fiscal year that ended in September, and at the close of trading Wednesday, when Apple’s stock reached $202.10, Jobs’ holdings were worth around $1.1 billion.

He is also the largest individual shareholder of The Walt Disney Company, with his 7.4% stake currently worth about $4.5 billion.

At an annual meeting scheduled for Feb. 25, 2010, Apple’s shareholders will have a chance to vote on the company’s executive compensation plans. Shareholders have already submitted two other proposals to be voted on at the meeting, one calling for a detailed environmental sustainability report, and the other for a board committee devoted to that issue.