Tech giants are playing a wild game of corporate musical chairs, and the CEOs are the only ones getting a golden seat. In 2024, while companies are slashing jobs and demanding workers return to the office, top executives are still raking in astronomical paydays that would make most of us weak in the knees.

The Millionaire’s Club

Let’s talk numbers that’ll make your eyes pop: Apple’s Tim Cook pocketed a cool $74.6 million last year - that’s 650 times what the average Apple employee makes. Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters each cleared over $60 million, while Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen weren’t far behind, banking $55 million and $52.4 million respectively.

The AI Excuse

These tech overlords are using artificial intelligence as their latest corporate excuse for cutting jobs while maintaining their own astronomical compensation. Companies like Meta and Alphabet are trimming workforce “inefficiencies” while their leaders continue to swim in cash. Mark Zuckerberg’s $27.2 million payday feels almost modest compared to Cook’s haul.

The Bigger Picture

To put this into perspective, $50 million is more than the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s entire budget deficit. It’s roughly 520 times the median California household income. While workers are being squeezed, CEOs are living their best capitalist fantasy - proving once again that in tech, the rich keep getting richer.