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Apple has hired thousands of people each year over the last decade or so as its businesses have continued to grow. From research and development to meeting customers at its retail stores, Apple’s employees are in demand. Apple also rewards its employees well, and some are compensated with stock awards that can exceed their base salary. Here’s how much Apple pays and who gets paid the most.Who are Apple’s highest-paid executives?Apple rewards its top executives handsomely for meeting the company’s internal targets, in the form of both cash and stock awards.Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO since 2011, is the company’s highest-paid executive. His annual base salary is $3 million, unchanged since 2016, but his total compensation is much higher. His 2025 target cash incentive plan — aimed to reward executives for delivering strong performance on annual financial goals — was set at 200% of his base salary, and that translated to $6 million. He had a target equity award value set at $50 million. Total compensation for the year was $74 million, according to Apple’s proxy statement. Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO and a senior vice president, had a 2025 salary of $891,519, but his total compensation was $22 million. Other senior vice presidents, Kate Adams (general counsel and secretary), Sabih Khan (chief operating officer), and Deirdre O’Brien (head of retail and people), had salaries of $1 million but received $27 million in total compensation. Related: How many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant’s workforceWhat is Apple’s median compensation & CEO pay ratio?Apple uses a CEO pay ratio that compares its CEO’s compensation to that of the median among employees. In 2025, Cook’s total compensation was $74.29 million, compared to the median compensation of $139,483 for permanent full-time and part-time employees who didn’t work the full year. (Apple had more than 166,000 employees globally, according to its fiscal year 2025 annual report.) That put Apple’s CEO pay ratio at 533 to 1. By comparison, Nvidia’s ratio was smaller, at 166 to 1.Still, Apple’s median compensation is above the U.S. average annual salary of $62,608, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. How much do Apple’s engineers make?Apple’s engineers make up a significant portion of the company’s employees. Common positions include data engineer and software engineer, and many of these employees are based out of the company’s U.S. hubs in Austin, Texas, and Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apple’s career page listed the base salary for an engineer with a few years’ experience at around $141,000 to $258,000. Still, pay depends on skills, qualifications, experience, and location. And incentives, such as meeting internal targets, could boost compensation beyond base salary.More on Apple:Where is Apple’s headquarters? A spaceship-like office with thousands of treesDoes Apple pay dividends? A history of rewarding shareholdersApple’s stock split history: Everything you need to knowHow much does an Apple retail employee earn?Apple operates 275 stores across the U.S., and that requires employing hundreds, if not thousands, of employees. Their front-facing work involves greeting customers and providing technical assistance. Apple doesn’t provide salary details for retail positions on its career website. Community specialists make about $64,000 to $116,000, while technical specialists are paid a bit more, at $56,000 to $123,000, according to jobs listing provider Glassdoor. Does Apple promote from within?If Apple’s executives are any guide, the company often promotes staff to higher positions, and that can lead to higher salaries and total compensation. Cook joined Apple in 1998 as executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations and received several promotions before becoming chief operating officer in 2005. After Steve Jobs’ death in 2011, Cook became CEO.Sabih Khan joined Apple in 1995 and held various roles before becoming chief operating officer in July 2025.Related: Who owns Apple? Institutional holdings & executives’ shares

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These days, consumers don’t exactly have unlimited budgets. And it’s easy to see why.In February, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.4% on an annual basis. And households across a range of incomes are feeling the pain of persistent inflation.A recent Harris Poll data published by the Journal of Accountancy found that 50% of Americans fear living costs increases will be an obstacle to meeting financial goals this year. They’re probably not wrong.In response to inflation, American consumers are changing their ways. A good 59% are planning to cut back on small daily purchases in 2026, reports MarketWatch.That means retailers have to fight harder than usual to capture consumers’ dollars. But Costco has a huge advantage in that battle.The price war is squeezing retail marginsIt’s not unusual for competing retailers to try to best each other on price. But in recent years, the price war has intensified as inflation, tariffs, and general economic uncertainty have come to a head.Granted, inflation has cooled nicely after peaking in the post-pandemic years. But while annual inflation may be lower these days, much of the damage has already been done. Related: Costco members hit with surprising added membership chargeMany consumers are stuck in a cycle where a good number of their expenses are perpetually elevated. And the only way to compensate is to cut back on discretionary spending. That pullback in spending, though, is coming at a time when retailers are facing higher costs due to inflation and tariffs. And while larger retailers may be better equipped to cope with that pressure, even giants like Walmart and Costco are by no means immune. Costco, however, has a few key advantages over its competitors that allow the company to lower prices without battering margins.

Retailers must fight hard to capture consumers’ dollars, but Costco has a huge advantage.Shutterstock

Costco’s leaning into value, and it’s paying offCostco has long emphasized offering members value. “Our focus is really on running the business for the long term and making sure we are delivering value for members,” CFO Gary Millerchip said during the company’s most recent earnings call. During that same earnings call, Costco said it continues to focus on price reductions wherever possible. And it has two advantages that make that possible.First, unlike traditional retailers, Costco gets a lot of its revenue from membership fees. That’s money the company takes in without having to sell a single product. Costco is then able to use membership fee income — which amounted to $1.36 billion during its most recent quarter — to offset the cost of procuring inventory, allowing for more price reductions.Secondly, Costco can lean on its Kirkland Signature brand to reduce prices on essential products. The brand not only helps Costco maintain its reputation as a leader in product quality, but also helps the company undercut competitors.More Retail:Costco sees major shift in member behaviorRetail chain shuts all locations as legal changes hit industryCostco makes major investment in online shopping for membersT-Mobile launches free offer for customers after major lossOf course, Costco, like other retailers, faces challenges in the coming quarter. Global economic uncertainty, shifting consumer habits, and potential tariff volatility could all put the pressure on.But for now, Costco is in a strong position to lower prices and retain members without compromising on quality or risking its bottom line. Not every retailer today can say the same.Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco.Related: Sam’s Club fixes problem that’s a major pain point at Costco

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If you work in sales, marketing, or customer service, odds are, you know Salesforce (CRM). The enterprise software company provides customer relationship management (CRM) tools that are used by 90% of Fortune 500 companies.But Salesforce didn’t become a success overnight. Co-founded in 1999 by CEO Marc Benioff, the company has investors to thank for helping it transform from a tiny startup into a mega-cap stock with a market capitalization of $185 billion as of spring 2026.In fact, Salesforce served as an emblem of the modern digital economy when it replaced ExxonMobil (XOM) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2020.But as the AI revolution continues to reshape business, Salesforce has faced headwinds, and its shares fell 25% in 2025 due to weaker-than-expected revenue forecasts and slowing growth.In 2026, Salesforce announced a massive $50 billion share buyback program, a move designed to reduce the company’s share count and benefit shareholders.Salesforce even noted in a press release that its buyback “underscores leadership’s confidence in the company’s position in the Agentic Era and commitment to driving shareholder value.”So, just who are its shareholders?Who owns Salesforce?Unlike privately held companies, no single person owns Salesforce.Instead, Salesforce is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. It is also a prominent component of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.This means that Salesforce’s ownership is spread across institutional investors, individual shareholders, and company leadership.Related: How do companies get added to (& dropped from) the Dow? The averages committee explainedSalesforce’s institutional investors (85%)Institutional players are Salesforce’s dominant owners. They control roughly 85% of shares outstanding.This is because Salesforce is a major component of the S&P 500, and so it’s automatically included in index funds that track the index, such as Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO), and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV).Related: Does Apple pay dividends? A history of rewarding shareholdersAccording to Yahoo! Finance, over 3,000 institutional entities owned CRM as of December 31, 2025, and half of its shares were controlled by just 24 companies.Here are Salesforce’s Top 10 institutional investors:Salesforce’s biggest shareholdersCompanySharesPercentage of outstanding sharesValueVanguard Group Inc.89.84 million9.73%$17,754,348,146Blackrock Inc.80.69 million8.74%$15,944,709,077State Street Corporation50.08 million5.43%$9,896,599,577Capital International Investors22.72 million2.46%$4,490,010,089Geode Capital Management, LLC21.78 million2.36%$4,304,557,596Capital World Investors19.67 million2.13%$3,887,615,455Morgan Stanley19.01 million2.06%$3,756,490,460NORGES BANK12.02 million1.30%$2,374,386,087Northern Trust Corporation10.5 million1.14%$2,075,277,955FMR, LLC10.25 million1.11%$2,025,692,820Source: Yahoo! FinanceSalesforce’s individual investors (16%)Retail investors, or members of the general public who buy and sell stocks, own hundreds of millions of shares of CRM, making up around 16% of Salesforce’s ownership.Company histories:History of Microsoft: Company timeline & factsHistory of Coca-Cola: Timeline, facts & milestonesHistory of Nike: Company timeline and factsWhile they are a significant group, in terms of shareholder voting power, individual investors don’t have nearly the same power in making major company decisions as its institutional investors do.20 years ago, March 8 1999 Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, Frank Dominguez, & I showed up at 1449 Montgomery Street & started a company called https://t.co/GcJjXaxGXz & introduced the end of software (now called the the cloud). Congratulations @parkerharris on 20 amazing years! pic.twitter.com/FQdjNbZI0D— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 8, 2019

Who is Salesforce’s leadership? What is their stake in the company?Salesforce CEO Benioff owns 2.3% of total shares outstanding, or 11.9 million shares.In 1999, Benioff left his job as Vice President at Oracle to found Salesforce, along with his colleagues Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez. They built the prototype for their CRM software out of a rented apartment on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill.Like many other Silicon Valley companies, Salesforce followed the traditional trajectory of growth: going from startup to earning press, increasing revenues, securing angel investments (from none other than Oracle’s Larry Ellison), and going public in December 2004. By 2008, Salesforce had 1 million customers and $1 billion in revenues.Harris and Moellenhoff continue to own a smaller, albeit sizable, number of shares: 1.9 million and 2.2 million, respectively, while SEC filings from Dominguez are not readily available. Related: Is Chevron a good long-term investment? Its buy-and-hold prospects explained

The exchange laid off about 180 employees as it restructures and rolls out enterprise-wide AI to drive efficiencies.