Jeff Bezos’ Shocking Amazon Salary Revealed After Report He Was ‘Wiped’ by Lauren Sanchez
When it comes to people like Jeff Bezos, one of the main questions asked is how much he’s worth and how much he earns. Everyone knows he’s the founder of Amazon, but how does that translate to day to day? Does he still receive a salary from Amazon? How much was he paid when he was CEO of the company?
Bezos spoke about this very subject during a 2024 interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, explaining that during the early days of Amazon, he asked the board “not to give me any comp,” beyond a base salary of just $80,000. Pretty low for a CEO, particularly considering how much the position makes these days all across the board, especially in bonuses.
Related: How do Jeff Bezos’s kids feel about Lauren Sanchez?
“I already owned a significant amount of the company, and I just didn’t feel good about taking more,” Bezos said. “I just felt, ‘How could I possibly need more incentive?’ I just would have felt icky about it.”
To this day, Bezos holds about 900 million shares of Amazon, which makes his overall worth well above $200 billion according to Fortune. On top of still retaining about 10% of Amazon, he also owns aerospace company Blue Origin and the Washington Post, and holds investments in many big companies, such as Uber, Airbnb, and Workday.
Reportedly, Bezos maintained that $80,000 throughout his tenure at the e-commerce giant, with no bonuses. He resigned as Amazon CEO in 2021.
“I’m actually very proud of that decision,” Bezos said. “Founders own big chunks of the company. They don’t really need—they’re more like owner-operators—the way they increase their wealth is not by getting comp,” Bezos explained. “They just want to make the equity.”
Reports about his Amazon salary have resurfaced after his wedding to Lauren Sánchez, which took place in Venice and was attended by a who’s who of Hollywood stars. The couple recently celebrated Christmas in Aspen and then headed to celebrity hotspot Nikki Beach in St. Barts, where reports indicated their bandwidth might be a bit different.
“Lauren’s energy is non-stop,” a source told Rob Shuter. “She was jumping, dancing, laughing — and Jeff was hanging on for dear life. He looked wiped.” These reports indicated that the two didn’t look unhappy, but that Bezos’ new wife looked way more into partying than he did.
“He’s happy, but he’s clearly worn out trying to match her,” another source said about the new couple.
There isn’t even a big age gap between the two that could explain the difference. Lauren Sánchez Bezos is 56, while Jeff Bezos is 62. Not enough of a gap that anyone would consider that to be the issue.
Perhaps Bezos is just ready to rest, particularly after so many years of working hard. Maybe he was just particularly tired around the days these reports came out, and it isn’t part of a pattern that people need to be concerned about. Either way, people have now noticed. And they will be paying attention.
