Chief Executive Officers of major companies make a lot of money quite alright, but the ones in Silicon Valley are driving home a truckload of cash. The amount of money being chunked into the pockets of tech company owners just shows how lucrative a career in tech is. Of course, this doesn’t mean that other career paths aren’t lucrative, but the fact that the richest man in the world is a tech CEO says a lot about this industry.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported this week that the average annual compensation for its employees in 2018 alone was $246,804 (₦88,849,440). However, just like all the other modest tech CEOs in America, Larry Page made only one dollar in salary. This has been the case for him for years.
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey made a combination of 4 dollars and fifteen cents (₦1,494) in 2018 as well. This a combined fee for being the CEO of Square as well. However, the average salary at these companies currently stands at $172,703 for Twitter and $128,735 for Square. This is when you factor in bonuses and additional compensations.
The truth is that these CEOs are far from broke. The fact that they can maintain a great lifestyle like the one they have means that this is definitely a public relations ploy. The net worth of these men runs into millions of dollars. These CEOs are still among the richest people in the world. As the founders of the companies, they own huge stocks in the company so they are still rolling in good money. So much so that forfeiting a salary is nothing.
According to data from Equilar, tech CEOs salaries rose by 15% in 2018 on average to about $6.6 million. The pay of these CEOs has risen by 1000% between 1978 and 2017. In essence, owning a tech company is one of the most lucrative businesses to invest in.
They also enjoy great financial gain because their salaries are directly tied to the stock market. They include stock-based compensation rather than just salary raises. This a major reason why a lot of the CEOs can afford to still live well off meagre wages.
In 2018 alone, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s equity amounted to a whopping $2.3 billion. However, his salary was only $56,000.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s compensation rose to $15.7 billion. This was due to cash incentives tied to the company’s sales and operating income goals.
Also in 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg got a 115% increase in compensation. It rose from $8.9 million to $22.6 million. This was despite a series of major privacy issues that led to a decline in the stock price of the company. However, Zuckerberg’s salary is only one dollar.
Not to mention, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, valued at $154.8 billion, is the richest man in the world.