Apple's Tim Cook: The Man who earned £464 per minute in 2011

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has earned a pay package worth a staggering $378m (£244m) in 2011. Taking home £1.8 million in salary and performance bonus during the year – quite the generous sum itself we'd agree – that figure is eclipsed by the value in shares he was granted by Apple's board upon taking over from the late Steve Jobs in August. 

For many of us, simply receiving a bonus of sorts from our respective employers is enough to write home about: a congratulatory pay slip to say 'thank you' for the countless hours worked, or a 'well done' for exceeding expectations within a role. For the new Apple boss, the board awarded Mr. Cook with a reported 1 million restricted stock units worth a total of $376m to show the faith entrusted in the ex-IBM employee. He will receive half of the shares in 2016 and half in 2021.

To put this in context, the total earned last year by Tim Cook (£244m) equates to an astonishing £668,493 worth of pay every single day, or a pay rate of £27,853/hour. Aaran Boyd, head of research at Equilar, an executive data firm, has said Apple's stock award to Mr. Cook was the largest single award given by a company in a decade. He is rumoured by analysts to be the highest paid CEO in the US in 2011.

Source: SEC