TIM COOK HAD big shoes to fill when he took over from Steve Jobs as the boss of Apple – but he’ll be well paid to wear them.

The new chief has been given a $378million pay packet, the equivalent of €295million, making him likely to become the highest-paid CEO in the States.

Most of the money – $376million – is made up of a million restricted stock units handed to Cook by Apple when he took over from an ailing Steve Jobs last August. This isn’t quite string-free – he can’t cash in on the stocks until 2016, and another tranche in 2021, and must remain with the company until then, the Guardian reports.

But the 51-year-old also receives a €900,000 annual salary.

News of the deal has set the media – and Silicon Valley – buzzing as to whether the pay packet is unreasonably large. Wall Street Journal blogger Ronald Barusch points out that the shares have no performance benchmarks before they are claimed – so all Cook has to do is avoid being fired, and he’s in the money.

But Reuters columnist Robert Cyran notes that Apple have a history of generosity to their leaders. In 2000, Steve Jobs was given 20million share options – and a $90million Gulfstream jet to sweeten the deal.

- Additional reporting from AP

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