Apple CEO Tim Cook.
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Chief executives are increasingly opting to take pay cuts off their multi-million annual compensation.
The reductions come amid economic hardship across industries, leading to mass layoffs.
Here are 6 CEOs who have reduced their salaries, from Tim Cook to David Solomon.
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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.”
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Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced on February 1 that he would take a 25% pay reduction this year, part of an effort to cut costs and prevent layoffs. Gelsinger will be joined by other top executives at the company, who also are taking 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.
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Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon took 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.
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Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman took 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.
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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.”
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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.