Jeff Bezos' Amazon salary explained as it's revealed he earns less than an average construction worker

Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world, but his Amazon salary might actually surprise you.

Bezos was replaced as CEO of the company by Andy Jassy back in 2021, and now serves as executive chairman. He still owns approximately eight percent of the company, worth approximately $225 billion.

You might expect Bezos to have been earning a huge salary at Amazon, but the truth is quite the opposite.

According to Fortune, Bezos makes the same wage he has made since 1998 - $81,400.

Bezos has spoken about keeping his salary low in the past, explaining part of the reason is because he owns a big share of the company.

Speaking during a New York Times DealBook Summit, he said: “I already owned a significant amount of the company, and I just didn’t feel good about taking more.

“I just felt, ‘How could I possibly need more incentive?’ I just would have felt icky about it.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the salary is less than the average construction worker.

Bezos' salary might surprise you (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Despite the salary, Fortune report that Amazon do pay for Bezos' security and business travel, totalling $1.6million last year.

“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,” they company wrote.

In contrast, Jassy earns a base salary of around $365,000, but much of it comes from stocks, like many of the executives at Amazon.

Bezos has been earning the same salary for years (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Although the online retail store is now a monumental success, reportedly making over $2 billion every single day, at one point it was simply an online book store in need of investment.

Bezos founded the e-commerce giant from the garage of his Bellevue, Washington home in July 1994.

He has since described the meetings he had with investors as the 'hardest' of his life, explaining he offered 20 percent of Amazon for $5 million. Out of 60 meetings, 40 said no.

"I had to take 60 meetings. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, basically," he said at the New York DealBook Summit.

Incredibly, one of the questions that Bezos received from sceptical investors was something that seems unimaginable today.

They asked him: "What is the internet?"

“The first question was, 'What’s the internet? Everybody wanted to know what the internet was'," Bezos explained.