The Billion Dollar Ballers and How Much They Pay Their Staff

If we trawl back through the depths of history, we are able to lay our eyes on some pretty wealthy figures.

We aren’t talking mere millions here either. No, that would be considered pocket money to some of these folk.

Take Mansa Musa for example. King of the Mali empire, Musa lived between the years of 1280 and 1337. His wealth? Well, it can only be described as ‘indescribable’. Then we’ve got the likes of our modern-day monetary giants—the Scottish American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, and the American Business magnate, John D Rockefeller.

Now, however, we have dot-com billionaires—those living amongst, us who we see donning their suits for work every day, and who we can actually compare our wealth against. But can we? 

It recently became apparent that if you were to have saved $10,000 every single day since the pyramids were built back in 2540 B.C, you’d still only have amassed a fifth of Jeff Bezos’ net worth.

Quite outstanding isn’t it? Well, with this in mind, we thought we’d see just how rich the richest are, comparing their net worth against the employees who work for them.

1)     Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, Owner of Amazon, saw his fortune grow considerably over lockdown. While other businesses sank or floated thanks to restrictions and lack of versatility, Amazon truly excelled.

In the three months building up to June 30^th, Amazon employed a further 175,000 staff across its operations, as online sales grew by more than 50 per cent, and web services grew by 29 per cent.

This inherent growth added just a little extra to Bezos’ pension pot. But did you know that Amazon warehouse operatives are earning a mere £9.35 per hour? Now, to put that into perspective, Amazon was turning a profit of £8,300 per second in late April, equivalent to £29,880,000 per hour.

2)     Bill Gates

Featuring prominently as the world’s wealthiest individual over the past few decades, Bill Gates is no stranger to a dollar bill. In fact, he only recently got pipped to the post by Jeff Bezos, who has now vanished into the distance when it comes to net worth.

The CEO of Microsoft has an estimated net worth of £86 billion, but surprisingly, the lowest-paid member of his company is only operating at an hourly wage of £8.83, totalling £19,000 per year.

If Bill was to spend $1 million a day, it would take him approximately 245 years to spend his fortune…

Despite giving away a lot of his shrapnel to charity, Gates joins Bezos, not only in the plus-$100 billion club, but also in the club that pays their staff effective minimum wage.

3)     Bernard Arnault

The name LVMH mightn’t ring any bells but we’re fairly confident the companies within will. The world’s biggest luxury goods company, LVMH includes brand such as Hennessey, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moet—and many more.

Mr Arnault’s estate is worth around £69 billion, making his family the third richest in the world after Bezos and Gates.

Does big wealth at the top, however, filter through to the bottom? The answer is no. According to reports, the lowest-paid member of staff in the LMVH team is earning an hourly rate of £8.65.

4)     Warren Buffet

If there was ever a man to speak to regarding your investments, it isn’t Tony from your local Building Society (no disrespect Tony), it’s Berkshire Hathaway founder, Warren Buffet.

Buffet filed his first tax return at the age of just 14—declaring his earning from his paper round.

Now boasting a net worth of £53 billion, Buffet is neither a fan of social media nor the ever-growing bitcoin.

When it comes to his staff, however, how does a man known for his frugality, pay?

Well, you might be surprised to discover that the lowest-paid employee in Buffet’s organisation is considerably higher than that of his three counterparts already accounted for in the rich list.

Work for Berkshire Hathaway as the lowest-paid entity and you’ll walk away with £10.08 an hour—not necessarily anything to write home about but still better than the others.

5)     Larry Ellison

No longer the CEO of Oracle having stepped down from his duties in 2014, Larry Ellison does still happen to be Chief Technology Officer and also serves on the board of Tesla.

Ellison holds the title of the world’s fifth-richest man, with a net worth of £55 billion.

Do the staff at the bottom of the food chain at Oracle share in spoils of that fairly meaty pie?

Once again, it’s a no — working as the lowest-paid member in the Oracle team will bring you in an hourly wage of £8.65.

Just because you work for a company that turns a ridiculous profit, doesn’t mean that you’ll be reaping a healthy chunk of the reward…