All companies · US · fiscal 2025

Apple

533times · chief executive pay ÷ median employee pay verified

It would take Apple's median employee 533 years to earn what its chief executive earned in one. That is above the 312 to 1 average across the S&P 500 in 2025.

Median employeeApple's SEC-identified median employee

$139,483

A 20 to 1 capRebecca Ledger model

$2,789,660

Tim Cookchief executive, fiscal 2025

$74,294,811

Apple's median is high because the count is dominated by corporate and engineering staff. Retail specialists report $22–34/hour, roughly $46–70k full-time — Apple does not publish retail pay. Tim Cook stepped down as CEO on September 1, 2026; the next proxy will show a different figure.

Show the evidence

Source: Apple, SEC Form DEF 14A, filed January 2026 — open this company's SEC filing list
Chief executive total compensation verified: $74,294,811 — Tim Cook, as reported in the Summary Compensation Table
Median employee total compensation verified: $139,483 — Apple's SEC-identified median employee
Ratio verified: $74,294,811 ÷ $139,483 = 533. This ratio is disclosed by the company itself in the filing.
Retrieved: 2026-09-07
Methodology caution: SEC rules let each company choose how it identifies its median employee — whether part-time and seasonal pay is annualized, which countries are included. Ratios are exact within a company and approximate between companies. Full methodology.

The numbers

$74,294,811

Chief executive verified

Tim Cook, fiscal 2025 total compensation

$139,483

Median employee verified

Apple's SEC-identified median employee

533:1

Ratio verified

S&P 500 average is 312:1

Pay Fairness score calculated

0–100, from the ratio alone. Formula

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Employee ownership insufficient data

Not disclosed. No company on the ledger yet publishes what share of its stock is held by rank-and-file employees. That silence is itself the finding.

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Buybacks & net income insufficient data

Not yet collected for this company. Want to add it? Take the Rebecca Challenge.

What 20 to 1 would look like proposal

This is a Rebecca Ledger model, not a prediction and not something the company has said or done. It caps chief-executive pay at twenty times this company's own median employee, and changes nothing else.

Chief executive today verified	$74,294,811
Under a 20× cap proposal	$2,789,660 (20 × $139,483)
Difference calculated	$71,505,151
What the difference equals calculated	about 513 more employees paid at this company's own median

The arithmetic is the whole model: one year of the difference, divided by one median salary. It assumes nothing about taxes, share price, or whether the company would do it. It is meant to make a large number legible, not to predict a decision.

Write to someone about it

Wrong about any of this? Send a correction — corrections are published, dated, and never quietly edited.