Mark Zuckerberg is Meta’s lowest-paid employee, at least on paper. The tech entrepreneur’s base salary for 2023 was a modest $1 dollar, while the average employee at the tech giant took home a whopping $379,000.
By comparison, the average tech worker can earn between $35,000 and $120,000, depending on the position, according to Indeed.
But don’t let Zuckerberg’s modest base salary and the fact that he didn’t take home a bonus last year fool you — the billionaire still cost the company millions in compensation.
According to a proxy filing statement published ahead of the annual shareholder meeting in late May, the Facebook founder received $24.4 million in “other compensation,” much of which covered his security costs.
Security costs Zuckerberg hit by ‘year of efficiency’
In 2023, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, revealed that it had increased Zuckerberg’s pre-tax personal security allowance by 40% from $10 million in 2018 to about $14 million.
The announcement came shortly after the company laid off 11,000 employees, the equivalent of 13% of its workforce, leading several publications to link the two.
Since then, however, the company has cut thousands more jobs, while Zuckerberg’s spending on security has actually fallen slightly.
In 2022, the social network chief spent $14,829,245 on personal security “at his residences and during personal travel,” according to the proxy filing. Meanwhile, his security bill last year – during Meta’s “year of efficiency” – totaled $9,431,139.
The compensation payment also includes nearly $1 million “for costs associated with personal use of private aircraft.”
While justifying the charges, Meta explained that it has identified “specific threats” to Zuckerberg as the face of the brand, including being targeted by angry customers.
“We believe that Mr. Zuckerberg’s role puts him in a unique position: he is synonymous with Meta and as a result, negative sentiment toward our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” wrote the company in the filing.
“Mr. Zuckerberg is one of the most recognized executives in the world, largely due to the size of our user base and our continued exposure to global media, legal and regulatory attention.”
Fortune has contacted Meta for comment.
The $1 Salary Club
Zuckerberg has been part of the $1 salary club since 2013, which previously included Larry Page, Larry Ellison and the late Steve Jobs, leaving his salary at just $11 in more than a decade.
But he has seen his personal wealth increase. In February, his net worth rose by $28 billion in just one day thanks to Meta’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.
After a year of cost-cutting that saw approximately 21,000 employees laid off, the company doubled its operating margin to 41% and costs fell 8% year over year.
As a result of Meta’s success, Zuckerberg – whose wealth is largely tied to his stake in the social media giant – has leapfrogged Elon Musk to become the world’s third richest person, Bloomberg data shows.
As of April 23, Zuckerberg’s net worth was $176 billion, compared to about $78 billion this time last year.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
