Amazon’s Highest Compensated Executives

Four of Amazon’s most highly compensated executives captured a combined $350 million in total compensated in 2021.

Amazon’s top paid executives all had an annual base salary of less than $200,000, with the vast majority of compensation coming via stock awards, according to an Amazon proxy filing this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We design our compensation programs to attract and retain the best talent, reinforce ownership, and emphasize performance and contribution to our long-term success,” said Amazon in its filing. “As a result, our compensation programs encourage experimentation, innovation, and long-term thinking, and we avoid tying compensation to a few discrete, short-term performance goals, financial or otherwise.”

Amazon said its executive compensation has two basic components: a modest base salary and periodic grants of time-vested restricted stock units subject to long-term vesting requirements that assume a fixed annual increase in the stock price so that compensation will be negatively impacted if the company’s stock price is flat or declines.

When evaluating the compensation of its executives in 2021, Amazon’s Compensation Committee reviewed peer company compensation benchmarking information, including data from the likes of Alphabet, Apple, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Walmart and The Walt Disney Company, according to Amazon’s filing.

[Related: Intel’s 6 Most Highly Compensated Execs; Pat Gelsinger Leads ]

With founder and executive chairman Jeffrey Bezos stepping out of his long-time CEO role last year for other ventures, including founding Blue Origin and traveling to space, Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy – who previously led AWS—was the highest compensated Amazon executive in 2021.

CRN reviewed Amazon’s SEC filing to break down its four most highly compensated executives at the Seattle-based e-commerce and technology conglomerate.