Guess how much is Warren Buffett's Salary a Year?

[Dennis Ng]

Many might know that Warren Buffett (depending on which year) is ranked amongst the Richest No. 1 to No. 3 person in the whole world. Guess how much he paid himself as salary?

Most listed companies in U.S. pay themselves over US$$5 million a year, plus Stock Options and other perks, that easily exceed US$10 million a year. So, since he is amongst the Richest and most successful CEO in U.S., he should be paid even more?

Nope, he only pays himself US$100,000 a year. His wealth is mainly tied to the investment performance of his company, read on for details.

Cheers!

Dennis Ng

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. who pays the company for postage and personal phone calls, received a $100,000 salary for a 29th straight year as he arranged a $27 billion acquisition.

Berkshire’s shareholder equity, a measure of assets minus liabilities, rose 20 percent to $131.1 billion in 2009 and annual net income climbed 61 percent to $8.06 billion. Buffett received no bonus in 2009 and he doesn’t get stock options or grants, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said late yesterday in a regulatory filing.

“Considering that far-more-mortal executives have been paid far more for delivering far less, the standards of comparisons would warrant a monumental increase,” said Tom Russo, partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which holds Berkshire stock. “He could say, ‘I’m worth a billion a year,’” Russo said. “That’s not Buffett.”

Buffett reimbursed Berkshire $50,000 last year to cover the cost of postage stamps, phone calls and staff time used for personal tasks, the company said in the filing. Vice Chairman Charles Munger, who also made a $100,000 salary, paid $5,500. Buffett and Munger don’t use company cars or belong to clubs paid for by Berkshire.

Security Costs

Berkshire reported $344,490 in costs for Buffett’s personal and home security. That’s up 9.1 percent from $315,709 in 2008.

Buffett, 79, completed the purchase last month of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. for $27 billion, the biggest acquisition of his career. He built Berkshire into a $200 billion company over four decades, transforming a failing maker of men’s suit linings into an enterprise with businesses ranging from car insurance and underwear to power plants and corporate jet leasing.

Buffett is also Berkshire’s chief executive officer as well as its largest shareholder. Since 2004, Berkshire’s compensation committee has determined salaries. Prior to that, Buffett recommended his own salary to the board.

“He views the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway as partners,” said Jeff Matthews, author of “Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha” and founder of the hedge fund Ram Partners LP. “If you have your own skin in the game, you own the shares of stock alongside your fellow shareholders and you make them a ton of money, you will make yourself a ton of money, and that’s the proper way to do it in his mind.”

Stock Gain

Berkshire’s Class A shares rose about 2.7 percent in 2009, ending the year at $99,200 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock gained another 24 percent this year through yesterday to $123,453. The shares traded at about $15 when Buffett took control in 1965.

Buffett was ranked the second-richest American by Forbes magazine, behind Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. chairman and a Berkshire board member. Buffett has pledged the majority of his Berkshire holdings to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds education and health initiatives, and to four family charities. The Gates donation is being made in annual installments, and will continue after Buffett’s death.

Gates, 54, and other members of Berkshire’s board, were paid $2,700 to $7,000, compared with $2,700 to $6,700 in 2008.

Buffett has criticized compensation of CEOs at poorly performing firms. The head of a failing company should be “destroyed himself financially,” he said on the Fox Business Network in January. “There ought to be a huge downside.”

“He eats his own cooking,” Russo said. “It’s easy to talk a good game. It’s a lot harder to take 100 grand a year when he could make up any number he wants.”

Buffett made $75,000 last year for his service on the board of Washington Post Co., the newspaper publisher that counts Berkshire as its biggest shareholder. He made the same amount in 2008 as a director on boards with Berkshire investments.

Marc Hamburg, chief financial officer, made total compensation of $874,750, compared with $786,500 in 2008, an increase of about 11 percent.

-- Editors: Dan Reichl, Rick Green

[wemakebread]

Respect!

[insecure]

Those people working in Wall Street should learn from him. Greed is what causes the collapse of our financial system.