- Jeff Bezos gave himself a salary of just over $80,000 at Amazon, he revealed to The New York Times. But he was able to make much more off of his stock holdings.
Currently worth $246 billion, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world. So it may come as a surprise to learn he kept his Amazon salary at just over $80,000 for decades.
“My view was I was a founder, “ the former CEO and founder of Amazon told The New York Times. “I already owned a significant amount of the company and I just didn't feel good about taking more.”
While he wasn't making much on paper, Bezos was still becoming one of the world's richest men. Between 2023 and 2024, Bezos made $8 million for every hour in the year— Inc.com’s Jeff Haden calculates. That’s all thanks to his stake in Amazon.
“I had plenty of incentive," Bezos said. “I owned more than 10% of the company. I just felt, how could I possibly need more incentive?” Since departing Amazon, Bezos has periodically sold his stock in the company, with an overarching goal of selling 25 million shares before the end of 2025.
Calling founders “owner-operators.” Bezos added that they build their wealth “not by getting more equity, they just want to make the equity they have more valuable.” That’s all to say, it’s not like Bezos was living off of $80,000—rather, he was making billions off of his company’s increased profitability.
“I asked the comp committee of the board not to give me any comp,” he said, adding later that he would have “felt icky” otherwise and he’s “very proud of that decision” to keep his compensation flat.
Lower salary means less taxes for billionaires
Still, Bezos has benefited financially from the move. Back in 2007 and 2011, Bezos didn’t pay any federal income taxes, according to a 2021 ProPublica review of decades of IRS data belonging to America's wealthiest businessmen. Their analysis found that Bezos avoided federal income taxes those years in part because he reported investment losses that were greater than his salary.
But he's not alone. Other billionaires like Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Michael Bloomberg have been able to make use of similar tax laws. The highest federal income tax rate in the United States is currently 37%, but the ProPublica analysis found most of these billionaires were all paying under 4% in their "true tax rate."
By measuring total income, wealth growth, actual taxes paid, and income from 2014 to 2018, ProPublica found that Bezos’ so-called "true tax rate" was 0.98%. That was still more than Buffet, whose "true tax rate" came in at .10%.
With a salary that’s comparatively low, Bezos’ worth is mostly tied to his investments. If the billionaire doesn’t sell, those holdings can’t be taxable— notes ProPublica. In other words, by not paying himself much annually, Bezos was likely able to save millions, perhaps even billions.
