Judy Sheindlin
People Whose Salaries Do Not Reflect Their Affluence (a.k.a. Rich People)
“Filling Mr. [Warren] Buffett’s shoes won’t likely lead to that kind of eye-popping pay, says Mr. Buffett, who earns $100,000 in salary as CEO of Berkshire, though he’s been enriched through his holding of Berkshire shares.” – Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26, 2010
So why, exactly, $100,000 as a salary for the third-richest person in the world? For whatever reason, Buffett has received the exact same salary 29 years in a row.
Meanwhile, back in Gotham, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the world’s 17th-richest individual, accepts $1 a year for his services. He also does not bother to live in Gracie Mansion, the official mayor’s mansion, but in his own pad.
Apple’s Steve Jobs takes home an annual salary of $1, whether he’s earning millions or billions more in paper wealth (as he does most years) or losing $2+ billion (as he did in 2008).
For some reason, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who in 2000 was briefly the world’s richest person, went from a base salary of $1 million in fiscal 2009 to the beloved $1 per year for fiscal 2010.
Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, subsists on a salary of 3,600,000 pesos, or just under $300,000. Not to worry; his estimated net worth of $53 billion is equivalent to 6% of Mexico’s GDP. As a comparison: When John D. Rockefeller died in 1937, America’s GDP was $92 billion; Rockefeller’s fortune, by far the largest ever for an American as a percentage of national GDP, was $1.4 billion, or roughly 1.5% of GDP.
Bill Gates has not been drawing a Microsoft salary since he stepped down as Chief Software Architect in 2006, when his salary, as well as CEO Steve Ballmer’s, was $616,667 (not the top salary at the company). Today, Gates gets $200,000 in compensation as a Microsoft director, and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is kind enough to compensate him with $2,700 – that’s not truncated to save space – to serve as director.
In 2009, President Obama earned $374,460 – a pro-rated portion of his $400,000 salary, since he was in office for only 345 of a total 365 days – but he and Michelle declared total 2009 income of $5.5+ million, which does not include the $1.4 million he snared for the Nobel Peace Prize (and which was donated to ten charities). Most of the money the President made came from royalties of his two books.
As Vice President, Joe Biden earns $221,100.
Actors are more like the rest of us shmoes: If you’ll put aside the oodles they may make from TV syndication, or participation in their movies, or other inside deals they’re privy to, etc., etc., etc., they, like most of us, must rely on their salaries. Just a few examples:
For each new episode of Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen gets $1.25 million, while his co-star Jon Cryer gets a mere $550,000. Each of the four main, hardly desperate Desperate Housewives – Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria Parker – earn $400,000 per episode, the same amount that Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner each get for voice-overing each Simpsons episode. David Caruso gets $375,000 per for CSI: Miami; Tina Fey, Jeremy Piven and Kyra Sedgwick $350,000 per for, respectively, 30 Rock, Entourage and The Closer; Steve Carell $297,000 for each episode of The Office; Patrick Dempsey and Kate Gosselin $250,000 each for, respectively, Grey’s Anatomy and Kate Plus 8; and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi $30,000 per episode of Jersey Shore.
As for annual salaries: Judge Judy (Sheindlin) gets $45 million, David Letterman $28 million, Matt Lauer $16 million, Ryan Seacrest $15 million, Bill O’Reilly $10 million, Ellen DeGeneres $8 million, and Jimmy Kimmel $6 million.
But don’t forget: That’s all before FICA withholding.
About the Author
Author of ten books (and counting), as well as stories in numerous magazines and newspapers, he has riffed on a wide range of subjects, including sports, the environment, love and sex, health care reform, dying, pop culture, computers, fatherhood, reality TV, travel, numbers, odd symmetry and more. His father Neil thought the best opening line to a novel was found in Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche: He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. DayRiffer feels no reason to disagree.
Judith Sheindlin – Archive Part 1 of 2
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Judge Judy – 2 Pack $16.43 JUDGE JUDY – DVD Movie… |
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Judge Judy: Second to None $6.86 JUDGE JUDY:SECOND TO NONE – DVD Movie… |
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Judge Judy: Justice Served $8.16 JUDGE JUDY:JUSTICE SERVED – DVD Movie… |
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Chips 99 [VHS] $14.98 A reunion movie featuring the cast of the 70′s hit TV series CHiPs. Your favorite characters are all here, including Frank “Ponch” Poncherello, Jon Baker, and Seargent Joe Getraer. As in the original series, this movie finds the guys teaming up to keep the California Highways in and around Los Angeles safe from harm…. |
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Chips 99 [VHS] $14.98 … |
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Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining: America’s Toughest Family Court Judge Speaks Out $6.99 ¡n we get some reality in here?ߡsks Judy Sheindlin, former supervising judge for Manhattan Family Court. For twenty–four years she has laid down the law as she understands it: ● If you want to eat, you have to work. ● If you have children, you’d better support them. If you break the law, you have to pay. If you tap the public purse, you’d better be accountable. Now she abandons all … |
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Judy Sheindlin … |
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Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever: The Making of a Happy Woman $7.12 Judge Judy has heard enough.As a family court judge in New York City and now in her successful TV courtroom show, she has listened to thousands of excuses, complaints, and tales of woe from women of every background, and she’s ready to rule. Women, she states with her trademark frankness, need to wise up, stop subjugating who they are, and stop making stupid decisions in the name of love. They hid… |
