Apple pays Jobs $1 this year

Apple chief Steve Jobs once again took home a $1 (58p) salary, although his net worth recieved a boost as the company's share price continued to soar.

Jobs has taken a $1 salary for the past several years, although in March 2003, he was awarded 10 million restricted shares of Apple stock that will be fully vested this month. With those holdings, Jobs owns about 1.2 per cent of Apple's outstanding shares, according to the company's annual proxy statement, which was filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As for other Apple executives' pay, chief operating officer Tim Cook was paid $602,434 in fiscal 2005, virtually unchanged from the prior year, although he also received a bonus of $600,239. Cook received no bonus in fiscal 2004, but he did receive $7.65 million in restricted stock that year.

Ron Johnson, the Apple executive in charge of Apple's retail effort, received $552,795 in salary and $550,202 in bonus. For 2004, he received $484,836 in salary and $1.5m in bonus as well as $6.38m worth of restricted stock.

Jon Rubinstein, the iPod unit chief who is retiring this month, received $552,795 in salary and $551,239 in bonus for fiscal 2005, as compared with $485,216 in salary the prior year. He received no bonus in fiscal 2004, but did take home $6.38m worth of restricted stock.

Apple's board had suggested that the company issue more cash bonuses. In last year's proxy statement, Apple's board said that despite the prior year's restricted stock grants, executives at the company were underpaid and urged the company to begin a cash bonus programme.

An Apple shareholder, meanwhile, has put a proposal up for a vote urging the company to take a stronger stand on taking back products at the end of the products' lives. The measure, put forward by the Education Foundation of America, will be up for discussion and a vote at Apple's annual shareholder meeting, to be held on 27 April at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The shareholder proposal argues that "Dell and Hewlett-Packard have both announced public computer take-back goals so stakeholders can measure progress against those goals" while "Apple has not".

Apple, meanwhile, urges shareholders to vote against the proposal, noting that the company "has a strong environmental policy that goes well beyond the shareholder proposal's very narrow view of environmental stewardship."

Shareholders this year are also being asked to approve Apple's outside auditor, KPMG, as well as its slate of seven existing directors.

After being targeted by protestors, Jobs defended Apple's environmental record at last year's shareholder meeting.