Jeff Bezos may be the world’s third-richest man, but his official salary is still less than six figures.
“Mr. Bezos requested not to receive additional compensation and has never received annual cash compensation in excess of his current amount,” the filing reads.
Part of the reason Bezos has kept his salary low and has never received stock compensation from Amazon is because he owned a large chunk of the company anyway.
“I already owned a significant amount of the company, and I just didn’t feel good about taking more,” Bezos previously said during 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.”
All of Amazon’s executive salaries focus more on stock compensation than cash on purpose. The company in its proxy statement said these salaries, which are meant 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.”
To be sure, Bezos also receives some perks thanks to his role as executive chairman. The company last year paid $1.6 million for Bezos’s security expenses and business travel.
“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 company wrote in the proxy statement.
