Mark Zuckerberg paid just $1 salary – but files reveal $26MILLION in ‘special compensation’ last year

MARK Zuckerberg has an on-paper salary of just $1 dollar but took in an additional eight-figures in compensation from Meta in 2021.

A Meta proxy statement indicates that most of the additional payments went toward Zuckerberg’s security detail at his home and during personal travel.

Zuckerberg has an ownership stake of about 15% in Meta

Zuckerberg became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in 2007 at the age of 23, just four years after launching Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard.

He cut his salary down to $1 in 2013 – making his salary earnings just $10 in the last 10 years.

In the years since, he’s seen his personal wealth balloon to almost $80billion thanks to his stake in Meta – and getting rich has been costly.

Protocol reported that the funds spent on Zuckerberg’s security was more than the combined cost of the next ten technology executives’ security purse.

The company rationalized the compensation by placing blame on society at large, stating that “negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr Zuckerberg.”

Zuckerberg is the largest controlling shareholder, CEO and, as founder, the most powerful voice within Meta.

He’s faced criticism from all angles for Facebook’s positions on speech and truth.

As Zuckerberg and his companies develop the metaverse, reporters are calling on him to establish an ethical framework for the virtual world before issues arise.

Meanwhile, Meta’s COO Sheryl Sandberg has seen her uncategorized compensation consistently rise over the last three years while her base salary has hovered around $900,000.

In 2019, Sandberg saw over $5million in additional compensation, and took in about $27million in total.

Two years later, in 2021, Sandberg’s other undefined compensation is over $11million, bringing her yearly figure to $35million.

The estimated median salary at Meta is about $150,000 annually.

Meta’s stock has been on a sputtering in 2022, with the share price dipping well below $300 for the first time in two years.

Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index shows that Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has dipped by $46billion in the last year as a result of the stock downturn.