Cisco paid CEO Chuck Robbins 160 times its average employee pay, a bigger ratio than Amazon paid Jeff Bezos
- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins made 160 times the median employee's compensation in fiscal 2018, according to a new filing.
- His $21.28 million compensation is composed of a $1.23 million base salary, equity and performance-based rewards.
- The median Cisco employee, on the other hand, brought home $132,764.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins is the $207 billion networking giant's most valuable player - at least when judging by compensation.
Robbins, who took over as CEO in 2015 after 18 years at the company, was paid 160 times the median average employee salary in fiscal 2018, according to a new company filing.
In total, Robbins brought home $21,284,339 - a combination of his $1.23 million base salary, $14.9 million in stock awards, and nearly $5 million in performance-based compensation, not to mention $121,000 of other perks including personal use of the corporate jet and matching contributions to his 401K.
This is the type of salary that makes it quite easy to buy and sell prime Silicon Valley real estate, such as the $13.8 million Los Gatos mansion Robbins unloaded in May.
Cisco's median employee salary isn't exceptionally low, either. The median employee made $132,764 during fiscal 2018, according to the filing.
While it's common for CEOs to make bank, Robbin's salary ratio is far above average. The median CEO makes 65X the salary of their median employee as of October 22, according to Equilar's ratio tracker,
And it's also surprisingly higher than other CEOs in Silicon Valley, where companies pay employees well and many CEOs make their riches as founders with high-equity stakes. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, took home $8,852,366 in 2017, according to company filings, which was 37X the median salary of $240,430.
This ratio is even way higher than Amazon, where the median employee made just $28,446 in 2017. CEO Jeff Bezos - frequently the richest person in the world, depending on where Amazon's stock is trading - took home $1.68 million, or 59X the median employee salary.