In an unprecedented move, Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year, as the tech sector continues to grapple with economic headwinds.

The pay cut diminishes what Cook earned the previous year, reflecting the adjustment on how Apple calculates compensation. The company said Cook approved the new pay.

Under the pay cut, Cook’s target total compensation is $49 million for 2023, with a $3 million salary, $6 million cash incentive and $40 million in equity awards, Apple said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Apple’s calculation adjustment comes at a time when the tech industry has been severely hit by economic downturn, forcing a growing number of companies to cut workforce.

AP News reported that Apple had in March conducted an advisory shareholder vote on executive pay with 6.21 billion shares voting in favor of the executive pay package and 3.44 billion against. The report also noted that there were also abstentions and broker non-votes.

That happened while Apple was still the most valuable company in the world, a position it lost to Saudi Aramco about two months later.

The Cupertino, California giant said its compensation committee took into account shareholder feedback, the company’s performance and a recommendation from Cook, who was promoted to CEO in 2011, to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received, per AP News.

It is not clear if the adjustment affects other Apple executives. But the company said it consulted with shareholders before the compensation decision was made and received “overwhelming support for Mr. Cook’s exceptional leadership and the unprecedented value he has delivered for shareholders.”

“Those shareholders we spoke with that did not support our 2022 Say on Pay proposal consistently cited the size and structure of the 2021 and 2022 equity awards granted to Mr. Cook as the primary reason for their voting decision,” the company said.

While Cook’s base salary has been $3 million for the past three years, his total compensation, including the restricted awards, saw a leap from $14.8 million in 2020 to $98.7 million in 2021 and $99.4 million in 2022, according to AP.

Though the iPhonemaker has not reduced its headcount like other tech companies after firing about 100 contract employees responsible for hiring worldwide in August – and freezing hiring in November – its stock declined about 23% in the past year.

The adjustment underscores Apple’s efforts to cut costs since last year. The company plans to position Cook’s annual target compensation between the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to its primary peer group for future years, according to the filing.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has taken a “rare” pay cut of around 40%, in order to take his total compensation package to $49 million this year. Cook made $99.4 million in total last year, including $3 million as a base salary, about $83 million in stock awards and a bonus, according to Bloomberg. While this year’s cut included some pushback from shareholders, it was also on the recommendation of Cook himself to drop his remuneration. As part of the deal, however, the percentage of stock paid to Cook tied to Apple’s performance has increased to 75% from 50%. In a filing, Apple said it plans to make Cook’s paycheck around the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to the primary peer group in future.(LinkedIn News)

In criminal jurisprudence, for a man to be held guilty of murder or culpable homicide it must be established that he has preconceived/ pre-planned or premeditated killing the victim thereby forming the mens rea before he executed the action, ie actus reus. 

If the prosecutor can not prove beyond every reasonable doubt that the killer had already planned to kill the deceased thereby forming the mens rea the accused will be discharged and acquitted totally for murder without punishment or discharged with a “mere slap on the wrist” or will be charged instead for manslaughter which is a crime of lesser calibre/punishment compared to murder or culpable homicide. 

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If a husband catches his wife having sex with another man, the husband can kill both the wife and the partner she is cheating with and the husband can go scot free or better still, he will only be charged with manslaughter instead of murder. This is what has come to be known in criminal jurisprudence as a crime of passion and it has been recognized in almost every jurisdiction around the world as a valid defence for the offence of murder. 

Crime of passion as a defence for murder can only hold water in court if the husband carried out the act of killing immediately after he caught his wife having sex with another man. If he waits to do it later then the action will be premeditated and the defence that he acted in the heat of passion or in the heat of the moment will no longer be valid in court. 

A crime of passion has come to be defined as a violent crime, especially homicide, in which the perpetrator commits the act against someone because of a sudden strong impulse such as anger or jealousy which was triggered by the action of the victim rather than as a premeditated crime.  

The basic ingredient that distinguishes a crime of passion from murder is that the perpetrator must act instantaneously in response to what happened or what he saw that triggered the impulse hence making the act not pre-planned or premeditated.

In summary, if you do engage in having a sexual relationship with another man’s wife or with another woman’s husband, you should know that if caught in the act by the man or the woman, the wife or the husband can kill you on the spot and he or she will not be charged for murder; it will only be held in court that the killer committed a crime of passion.