Jeff Bezos's salary at Amazon was $80,000 but he made $8 million for every hour in 2024

Jeff Bezos 's base salary also remained unchanged since 1998.

The world's second richest person Jeff Bezos is currently worth $241 billion, but for decades, he kept his salary at Amazon at $80,000 (about Rs 67 lakh) a year. His base salary also remained unchanged since 1998.

“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.”

But Bezos was still earning millions through his stakes in the company. Between 2023 and 2024, he made $8 million for every hour in the year— Inc.com reported. “I had plenty of incentive,” Bezos said. “I owned more than 10 percent of the company. I just felt, how could I possibly need more incentive?”

After stepping down as the CEO at Amazon, Bezos has periodically sold his stock in the company. According to a report by Fortune, he intends to sell 25 million shares before the end of 2025. Bezos said that he's asked the compensation committee of the board not to give him any "comp". He said that he is “very proud of that decision” to keep his compensation flat and that he would have “felt icky” otherwise.

But billionaires drawing low salaries mean they have to pay less taxes. 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 quoted by Fortune. He avoided paying taxes those years partially because he reported investment losses that were greater than his salary.