How Long Does It Take The World’s Richest Billionaires To Earn Your Annual Salary?

How Long Billionaires Earn Your Salary

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Dream of being the next billionaire to enter the annual Forbes richest list? Who doesn’t?

With Jeff Bezos leading the way in the era of the “centibillionaire” and Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Bernard Arnault and Mark Zuckerberg not far behind — between them their net worth equals $566 billion — it’s difficult to truly comprehend how their impressive wealth compares to our own.

So, to make it easy (and more than a little bit depressing) the folks over at RS Components have worked out how much the wealth of the top five billionaires on the Forbes richest list has increased over the past year so that you can enter your own salary and see how long it would take you to earn the same amount.


For instance, did you know…
Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, saw his wealth increase the most last year — by $39.2 billion to be precise.
Bernard Arnault was the second biggest earner who saw his net worth increase by $30.5 billion — yet he comes fourth in the Forbes list.
Bill Gates was the lowest earner as his wealth only increased by $4 billion last year.
• Amazon CEO, Bezos, saw his net worth increase by the median salary he pays his employees in 23 seconds.
• The average US salary is $56,516, it would take Jeff Bezos 46 seconds to earn that much, while Bernard Arnault would earn the same amount in 59 seconds. It would take Gates, Zuckerberg and Buffett over a minute to see their net worth increase by the same figure.
• An anesthesiologist is the highest paying job in the US at $269,600. Bill Gates would have to wait over 35 minutes before his wealth jumped up by that figure, while Jeff Bezos would only be waiting 3 minutes and 37 seconds.

Here are some more interesting (and more than a little bit depressing) stats for you to chew on…

If you make $100,000 a year…

• It takes Jeff Bezos 1 minute, 21 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bernard Arnault 1 minute, 43 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Mark Zuckerberg 3 minutes, 30 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Warren Buffett 6 minutes, 14 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bill Gates 13 minutes, 6 seconds to earn your salary.

If you make $250,000 a year…

• It takes Jeff Bezos 3 minutes, 21 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bernard Arnault 4 minutes, 18 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Mark Zuckerberg 8 minutes, 44 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Warren Buffett 15 minutes, 35 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bill Gates 32 minutes, 44 seconds to earn your salary.

If you make $500,000 a year…

• It takes Jeff Bezos 6 minute, 41 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bernard Arnault 8 minutes, 35 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Mark Zuckerberg 17 minutes, 28 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Warren Buffett 31 minutes, 10 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bill Gates 65 minutes, 27 seconds to earn your salary.

If you make $1,000,000 a year…

• It takes Jeff Bezos 13 minutes, 22 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bernard Arnault 17 minutes, 11 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Mark Zuckerberg 34 minutes, 55 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Warren Buffett 62 minutes, 20 seconds to earn your salary.
• It takes Bill Gates 130 minutes, 54 seconds to earn your salary.

See how long it would take them to make your salary here.