• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
MPWHuman Capital

Apple’s Top Woman Makes More Than CEO Tim Cook

By
Valentina Zarya
Valentina Zarya
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Valentina Zarya
Valentina Zarya
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 7, 2016, 1:16 PM ET
Apple's New Big-Screen iPhones Draw Long Lines As Sales Start
Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of retail and online stores at Apple Inc., tours an Apple Inc. store during the sales launch for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Palo Alto, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Apple Inc.'s stores attracted long lines of shoppers for the debut of the latest iPhones, indicating healthy demand for the bigger-screen smartphones. The larger iPhone 6 Plus is already selling out at some stores across the U.S. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotography by David Paul Morris—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Angela Ahrendts, the only woman on Apple’s executive team, makes more money than her male counterparts—including CEO Tim Cook.

According to a proxy statement filed by the tech giant on Wednesday, Cook earned about $10 million last year. The other five named members of the executive team received more than twice that figure— $5 million in salary and $20 million in stock awards. While all the top execs’ packages are quite similar, Ahrendts ended 2015 with the largest total: $25,779,229. (CFO Luca Maestri is nipping at her heels with $25,337,977.)

This isn’t the first time Ahrendts, Apple’s SVP of retail and online stores, has come out on top of the pay pile. She was the highest-paid woman on Fortune’s 2015 list of Most Powerful Women and is the highest-paid female executive in the U.S., according to Bloomberg’s Pay Index.

Sign up: Click here to subscribe to the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.

The former CEO of Burberry spearheaded the retail launch of the Apple Watch, which received mixed reviews. Her other focus has been integrating Apple’s (AAPL) online and retail divisions, as well as expanding the company’s retail presence in China.

Last September, Cook spoke to Fortunesenior editor Jennifer Reingold about how Ahrendts was fairing 16 months into her job. “It felt like she’d been here a decade the first day,” he told Reingold. “I knew she was going to be off the charts, but she’s even more off the charts than I thought. She came in so fast. There was no [learning] curve.”

While Apple may have achieved pay equity at the tippy top of the company, it’s not clear how women at lower levels of the organization are fairing. One thing is for certain: Apple, like fellow tech giants Facebook and Google, is still heavily skewed towards men. According to its latest diversity report, less than a third (31%) of its global workforce is female. this number gets even smaller at the top, with women comprising only 28% of its leadership team as of June 2015. Still, the company is making progress: According to head of human resources Denise Young Smith, more than 11,000 women have been hired worldwide in the past 12 months, a 65% increase from the previous year.

Note: Fortune has reached out to Apple for comment regarding gender equality in compensation across the firm. We will update this story if and when the company responds.

About the Author
By Valentina Zarya
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in MPW

Workplace CultureSports
Exclusive: Billionaire Michele Kang launches $25 million U.S. Soccer institute that promises to transform the future of women’s sports
By Emma HinchliffeDecember 2, 2025
6 days ago
C-SuiteLeadership Next
Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman says she has the best job ever: ‘My job is to help make people feel really good about themselves’
By Fortune EditorsNovember 5, 2025
1 month ago
ConferencesMPW Summit
Executives at DoorDash, Airbnb, Sephora and ServiceNow agree: leaders need to be agile—and be a ‘swan’ on the pond
By Preston ForeOctober 21, 2025
2 months ago
Jessica Wu, co-founder and CEO of Sola, at Fortune MPW 2025
MPW
Experts say the high failure rate in AI adoption isn’t a bug, but a feature: ‘Has anybody ever started to ride a bike on the first try?’
By Dave SmithOctober 21, 2025
2 months ago
Jamie Dimon with his hand up at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit
SuccessProductivity
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says if you check your email in meetings, he’ll tell you to close it: ’it’s disrespectful’
By Preston ForeOctober 17, 2025
2 months ago
Pam Catlett
ConferencesMPW Summit
This exec says resisting FOMO is a major challenge in the AI age: ‘Stay focused on the human being’
By Preston ForeOctober 16, 2025
2 months ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Real Estate
The 'Great Housing Reset' is coming: Income growth will outpace home-price growth in 2026, Redfin forecasts
By Nino PaoliDecember 6, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Nvidia CEO says data centers take about 3 years to construct in the U.S., while in China 'they can build a hospital in a weekend'
By Nino PaoliDecember 6, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
The most likely solution to the U.S. debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity, former White House economic adviser says
By Jason MaDecember 6, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a 'real problem’
By Katherine Chiglinsky and BloombergDecember 6, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Big Tech
Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook for the metaverse. Four years and $70 billion in losses later, he’s moving on
By Eva RoytburgDecember 5, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Supreme Court to reconsider a 90-year-old unanimous ruling that limits presidential power on removing heads of independent agencies
By Mark Sherman and The Associated PressDecember 7, 2025
15 hours ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.