Apple to adjust executive bonuses according to social and environmental criteria

In its annual report sent to shareholders on 05 January 5 ahead of it annual general meeting, the American multinational technology company announced that going forward the company will vary the bonuses it pays to its key executives according to six core "values", namely the environment, inclusion and diversity, privacy and security, education, accessibility, and supplier responsibility. Starting in 2021, the Board of Directors’ Compensation Committee will take these criteria into account to adjust by up to 10% (up or down) bonus payments based on the company’s annual financial performance. However, precise methods for measuring performance against these environmental, social and governance criteria have not been specified. For 2020, California headquartered Apple paid a bonus of more than $10 million its CEO Tim Cook and nearly $3.5 million to each of his senior executives, which is 50% up on the 2019 figure and well above their fixed salaries of $3 million p.a. for Tim Cook and $1 million p.a. for his vice presidents. ‘This change will further motivate Apple’s executive team to meet exceptionally high standards of values-driven leadership in addition to delivering strong financial results,’ the tech giant said in its annual report. The decision comes at a time when one of Apple’s supplier factories, Wistron, was ransacked in December by its employees in India in protest at significant wage delays, and another of its suppliers is being accused, based on documentary evidence, discovered by the Tech Transparency Project, of using forced Uighur labor in China.