Amazon chief executive officer Andy Jassy’s compensation last year totaled $212.7 million, a nearly sixfold increase from his pay package in 2020 when he headed the tech giant’s AWS division.
Virtually all of Jassy’s 2021 comp — $211.9 million — was in restricted stock that vests over the next 10 years, according to Amazon’s proxy statement filed Friday. His base salary was $175,000, unchanged from the two prior years; in addition, Amazon paid $589,149 in security expenses for the CEO.
Founder Jeff Bezos, who assumed the role of executive chair when Jassy took the helm July 5, earned a salary of $81,840 last year, the same as the two years prior, per Amazon’s filing. His pay package also included $1.6 million for security paid by the company. Bezos, who owns about 12% of Amazon’s stock, currently has a net worth of $189 billion.
The Amazon board’s compensation committee said in the filing that it intends for Jassy’s stock award, which vests through 2031, “to serve as a long-term incentive for Mr. Jassy, and, accordingly, believes it should be viewed as compensation over the 10-year term and not solely as compensation for 2021.”
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“Faced with the first CEO succession in the Company’s history, the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee determined it important to provide for clarity and stability through an award that is designed to establish a long-term owner’s perspective and encourage bold, long-term initiatives, in the same manner that Mr. Bezos’s shares as founder incentivized him to focus on long-term, expansive growth,” the committee said.
Amazon disclosed Jassy’s stock award of 61,000 shares in July 2021. He was named Bezos’ successor as CEO in February 2021. Jassy joined the company in 1997, the year the company went public. He helped form the company’s fast-growing and profitable Amazon Web Services division in 2003 and had served as CEO of AWS since 2016.
In the proxy filing Friday, Amazon also disclosed business dealings with two Bezos-owned companies: the Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company.
In 2021, Amazon purchased approximately $1.3 million in advertising from the Washington Post (versus $1.6 million in 2020) and paid $8.5 million related to digital content to the publication (up from $6.5 million in 2020), “all on terms negotiated on an arms-length basis,” according to the company. In addition, last year Amazon sold $5.3 million of consumer goods to Blue Origin under a line of credit; it paid Blue Origin $650,000 in data and content license fees and incurred $669,000 for content production, marketing, and related costs.
“Due to Mr. Bezos’s substantial stock ownership, he believes he is appropriately incentivized and his interests are appropriately aligned with shareholders’ interests. Accordingly, Mr. Bezos has never received any stock-based compensation from Amazon,” the company said in the proxy statement.
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