Jeff Bezos Said He Made $80K A Year At Amazon And Turned Down More Because It Would Feel 'Icky' —'How Could I Possibly Need More Incentive?'

While different CEOs chased show bonuses and banal grants, Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos said helium took a antithetic route—and made it official.

At the 2024 New York Times DealBook Summit, Jeff Bezos said that for his full tenure arsenic the company's CEO, helium asked the company's compensation committee to headdress his wage astatine $80,000 a year.

"I asked the comp committee of the committee not to springiness maine immoderate comp," helium said. "I conscionable didn't consciousness bully astir taking more."

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He didn't request a crushed beyond that, but helium gave 1 anyway. Bezos, who built Amazon from scratch and remains its largest shareholder, said his monolithic equity involvement already aligned his incentives.

"How could I perchance request much incentive?" helium said. "It's already—the comp that I cared astir was making Amazon much valuable."

He wasn't funny successful the optics oregon nationalist pressure. He said his determination to cull other wage wasn't astir appearing modest—it was personal.

"I conscionable would person felt icky astir it," Bezos said. "I'm really precise arrogant of that decision."

That "icky" origin stuck with him. He lone said it erstwhile successful the transcript, but it deed hard—and summed up his full wage philosophy.

Bezos utilized the infinitesimal to explicate wherefore laminitis compensation looks antithetic from hired CEOs. As a large shareholder, helium already had each the information helium needed to physique value—for himself and others.

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"Founders thin to ain large chunks of the company," helium said astatine the summit. "They don't truly request much incentive. They conscionable privation to marque the equity they person much valuable."

He added that Amazon's full marketplace headdress was astir $2.3 trillion—and astir $200 cardinal of that was his. "So I created $2.1 trillion for different people," helium said. "And that's great."

Bezos stepped down arsenic Amazon CEO successful 2021, but inactive remains progressive arsenic chairman. He described his existent relation arsenic thing similar a genitor whose kid conscionable near for college—still adjacent and invested but nary longer making the day-to-day decisions.