World's smallest violin spotted at Amazon HQ as exec pay packets deflate
C-suite forced to take sandwiches into work, cycle home
It's going to be hard holding back our tears. The C-suite lieutenants at Amazon didn’t exactly get the bumper payday that many El Reg readers would expect, particularly compared with prior years.
Before anyone takes that to mean we’re playing violins for the big shots at Amazon, a company that is investing upwards of $100 billion in datacenters this year, we’re not. In 2024, four executives were collectively awarded over $115 million in compensation, largely because stock awards dominated their reported pay that year.
However, 2025 didn’t see a repeat of payroll profusion. The financial package handed to Andy Jassy, president and CEO, was $2.07 million, compared to $1.6 million in the prior calendar year, still not to be sniffed at, but nowhere near peers at Microsoft or even IBM. Jassy’s $365,000 base salary was unchanged, and the rest consisted mainly of security costs, business travel expenses, and retirement contributions.
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The market value of shares or units of stock that have not yet vested for Jassy is a little more than $242 million, according to a proxy statement.
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Founder and Executive Chair Jeffrey P Bezos received a wage pack of almost $82,000 and all other compensation took his total award to $1.68 million, though Bezos owns 8.8 percent of Amazon and - as is well known - is one of the richest people on the planet.
The financial package awarded to CFO Brian Olsavsky shrank from $25.7 million in 2024 to just $372,000 for last year. No stock awards in the latest fiscal year. Similarly, AWS head Matt Garman was allotted just over $617,000, versus $32.8 million when stock options vested in 2024. And CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores Douglas Herrington's package was $425,000 compared to $34.2 million.
David Zapolsky, chief legal officer, saw his rewards fall to $372,000 from $25.7 million.
Amazon’s revenue rose 12 percent year-on-year to $716.9 billion in 2025, while net income climbed 31 percent to $77.7 billion, thanks in no small part to AWS, which generated $128.7 billion in sales and $45.6 billion in operating income.
What about the median pay for Amazon staff? Including all full- and part-time permanent and temporary employees, the median financial compensation was $40,206, or half a Bezos salary. For US full-time Amazon employees, it was $53,211, up from $47,990. ®