Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said its median employee last year made a little over half the $100,000 salary that Chairman Warren Buffett was awarded for running the conglomerate that made him the world's third-richest person.
In a regulatory filing, Berkshire said Buffett's salary, unchanged for more than a quarter century, was about 1.87 times the $53,510 median pay, based on a sample of about two-thirds of Berkshire's 377,000 employees across some 90 businesses such as Geico insurance, the BNSF railroad and Dairy Queen ice cream.
The 1.87 pay multiplier contrasts with the three-figure multipliers that some chiefs of big US companies receive.
But nearly all of their fortunes, and those of Berkshire employees, are far smaller than Buffett's, whose $88.8 billion net worth trails only those of Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes magazine.
Berkshire is working with Amazon and JPMorgan Chase & Co to develop a company that lowers healthcare costs. Gates is a Berkshire director and longtime friend of Buffett.
According to Friday's filing, Berkshire in 2017 also provided Buffett with $375,000 of home and personal security services, while Buffett, 87, reimbursed Berkshire $50,000 for personal expenses.
Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Manger, 94, drew his usual $100,000 salary in 2017, while Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg's pay rose 46 percent to $2.29 million, the filing said.