Amazon continues to be paying Jeff Bezos an $80,000 yearly wage—however $1.6 million for journey and safety

The 62-year-old Amazon founder is value $254 billion, lower than solely Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google cofounder Larry Page, in accordance with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Yet throughout practically his complete 25-year tenure as CEO of the highest firm on the Fortune 500, Bezos has acquired the identical wage of $81,400 from Amazon—lower than the common building employee, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Amazon’s 2026 proxy, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, confirmed Bezos nonetheless makes the identical wage he has made since 1998, the 12 months he boosted his wage to $81,400 from $79,197 for the prior year. 

“Mr. Bezos requested not to receive additional compensation and has never received annual cash compensation in excess of his current amount,” the submitting reads. 

His low wage has additionally not stored up with inflation. In 1998, Bezos’ $81,400 yearly wage was greater than double the median wage of $31,096 for males at the time. That identical wage was solely 16% greater than the median wage of $68,952 for males as of last year.

Part of the explanation Bezos has stored his wage low and has by no means acquired inventory compensation from Amazon is as a result of he owned a big chunk of the corporate anyway.

“I already owned a significant amount of the company, and I just didn’t feel good about taking more,” Bezos beforehand mentioned throughout a New York Times DealBook Summit interview. “I just felt, ‘How could I possibly need more incentive?’ I just would have felt icky about it.”

Bezos, who was changed as CEO by Andy Jassy in 2021 and now serves as govt chairman, owns about 8% of the corporate and is its largest shareholder, in accordance with Amazon’s most up-to-date proxy assertion. At Friday’s inventory worth, Bezos’ stake in Amazon was value roughly $225 billion, a majority of his internet value. Because most of Bezos’s wealth is tied up in his inventory and different belongings, he has beforehand been capable of pay lower than his true tax fee, reported ProPublica in 2021. 

All of Amazon’s govt salaries focus extra on inventory compensation than money on objective. The firm in its proxy assertion mentioned these salaries, which are supposed to be “significantly less than those paid to senior leadership at similarly situated companies” is “to closely tie total compensation to long-term shareholder value.” 

Jassy, the corporate’s present CEO, earned $365,000 final 12 months, which is the “base salary” for all of Amazon’s named govt officers, together with the CEO of Amazon Web Services, Matt Garman, and the CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, Doug Herrington, in accordance with the proxy assertion. At the identical time, Jassy’s stock-based compensation elevated by practically $473,000 between 2024 and 2025, in accordance with the submitting. 

To ensure, Bezos additionally receives some perks because of his position as govt chairman. The firm final 12 months paid $1.6 million for Bezos’s safety bills and enterprise journey. 

“We believe that all Company-incurred security costs are reasonable and necessary and for the Company’s benefit, and that the amount of the reported security expenses for Mr. Bezos is especially reasonable in light of his low salary and the fact that he has never received any stock-based compensation,” the corporate wrote within the proxy assertion.