Amazon exec chairman Jeff Bezos may not have a daily operational role at the cloud and e-commerce megacorp he founded, but he still got a bigger compensation package than the person currently pulling the strings from the chief executive’s office.
According to a Notice of 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders & Proxy Statement [PDF] – in which Amazon also rejected shareholder proposals for more transparency around alternative emissions reporting and the impact of its datacenter on climate commitments – Bezos accounted for $1.68 million in compensation last year.
Just $81,840 was related to the founder’s salary with $1.6 million pertaining to an “approximate aggregate incremental cost to Amazon of security arrangements for Mr Bezos in addition to security arrangements provided at business facilities and for business travel.”
The notice added: “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.”
Bezos, who is worth an estimated $189 billion, stepped back as CEO in July 2021 and switched to the role of executive chairman. Former AWS boss Andy Jassy was chosen to run Amazon Inc and according to the Proxy Statement he was paid $365,000 in salary and $1.23 million in all other compensation.
Before readers feel sorry for Jassy – no, we know you don’t – it is worth mentioning that Jassy has $274 billion in outstanding stock awards, so maybe he’ll be able to afford a suitable bunker when the shit hits the fan on planet Earth, assuming that doesn’t happen before the stock vests between 2025 and 2031.
AWS CEO Matt Garman, who only got that job in June last year, received a $365,000 salary and $32.8 million in stock awards. CFO Brian Olsavsky’s compensation was valued at $25.7 million, and Douglas Herrington, CEO worldwide of Amazon stores was awarded $34.2 million.
How about the mere mortals among the Amazon workforce? The document states:
“The 2024 annual total compensation of our median compensated employee (identified from all full- and part-time permanent and temporary employees worldwide, excluding our CEO) was $37,181; Mr. Jassy’s 2024 annual total compensation as reported under SEC rules was $1,596,889, resulting in a ratio of those amounts of 1-to-43.”
In the US, “for all US full-time Amazon employees was $47,990, up from $45,613 as reported for 2023.”
As for those shareholder proposals that Amazon’s directors recommend investors should vote against when the AGM happens in May, one was “Requesting Alternative Emissions Reporting” and the other was “Requesting Additional Reporting on Impact of Data Centers on Climate Commitments.”
Amazon claims there is no need for further emissions reporting, as its approach to Greenhouse Gas Emissions is “useful and reliable,” and “the proposal of including emissions generated by the third-party manufacturing of all the products we sell would result in double-counting of emissions across companies.”
On the impact of its bit barns in relation to climate commitments, it says: “Our current public reporting already addresses the specific challenges highlighted by this proposal and makes the report requested in the proposal unnecessary.”
Not according to one of The Register‘s recent exclusives. ®
