Amazon is still paying Jeff Bezos an $80,000 yearly salary—but $1.6 million for travel and security
Jeff Bezos may be the third richest man in the world, but his official salary is still below six figures.
62 year old Amazon Founder’s fortune is less than $254 billion Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and Google according to co-founder Larry Page Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But for nearly his entire 25-year tenure as CEO of the best company on the market luck 500Bezos also received the same salary $81,400 from Amazon– less than the average construction worker Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Amazon’s 2026 proxyA report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday confirmed that Bezos was still getting paid since 1998the year he increased his salary from $79,197 to $81,400 previous year.
“Mr. Bezos has requested not to receive additional compensation and has never received annual cash compensation in excess of his current amount,” the filing states.
His low salary also could not keep up with inflation. in 1998 Bezos’ annual salary is 81 thousand 400 dollars was more than twice the average male salary of $31,096 In that case. The same salary was only 16% higher than the median salary for men, which was $68,952. last year.
One reason Bezos kept his salary low and never received stock compensation from Amazon is that he already owns a large portion of the company.
“I already owned a significant part of the company and I didn’t feel good about taking on more,” Bezos previously said in a speech. New York Times DealBook Summit interview. “’How could I need more encouragement?’ I thought. I would feel disgusting about it.
who was Bezos He was replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy It was founded in 2021 and currently serves as chairman of the board, owns about 8% of the company and is its largest shareholder, according to Amazon’s most recent proxy statement. Based on Friday’s stock price, Bezos’ stake in Amazon was worth about $225 billion; which accounts for a large portion of his net worth. Because most of Bezos’ wealth is tied up in stocks and other assets, he was previously able to pay less than the actual tax rate. reported ProPublica in 2021.
All of Amazon’s executive salaries purposely focus on stock compensation rather than cash. These salaries, which are intended to be “significantly less than salaries paid to senior executives at similarly situated companies,” are “to closely tie total compensation to long-term shareholder value,” the company said in its proxy statement.
Jassy, the company’s current CEO, earned $365,000 last year; this is the “base salary” for all of Amazon’s top executives, including the CEO of Amazon Web Services. Matt Garmanand CEO Amazon Stores Worldwide, Doug Herrington, according to the proxy statement. At the same time, Jassy’s stock-based compensation increases by approximately $473,000 between 2024 and 2025, according to the filing.
