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Jeff Bezos earns more than $4 million an hour.
- Some of America's richest people make more money in one hour than others would ever see in their lifetime.
- We calculated how much 16 of the richest billionaires and celebrities make an hour, and the results were illuminating.
- Jeff Bezos makes more than $4 million an hour and Kylie Jenner earns the median US salary in roughly two-and-a-half hours.
When it comes to money, some people are just in a league of their own.
From businessmen and tech moguls to celebrities and athletes, we took a look at the earnings for 16 of the richest people in America and broke down how much they make in an hour. The results were illuminating, to say the least.
To calculate their hourly rate, we used the best available annual earnings and net worth information for each individual based on Forbes estimations. For the billionaires on the list, we found the difference between their 2017 and 2018 net worths (as provided by the Forbes' 2017 and 2018 richest people in the world lists, published every March) to determine their annual earnings.
For music, movie, and media celebrities, earnings were taken from the Forbes' 2018 Highest-Paid Celebrities list, which were provided based on compensation from June 2017 to June 2018.
We then divided all annual earnings by 8,760, the number of hours in a year, to calculate how much each person earns an hour.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Alice Walton all make more than $1 million an hour, thanks to their multibillion annual earnings. Bezos rakes in the most, earning a whopping $4,474,885 an hour. To put things in perspective, that's roughly 157 times the median annual worker pay at Amazon of $28,466.
The remaining six on the list earn six figures an hour, from Warren Buffett earning $958,904 an hour to former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman bringing in $102,739 an hour. Google's Larry Page sits in the middle of our list, making a nice $924,567 an hour.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Of all the celebrities on the list, George Clooney earns the most, making $27,283 every 60 minutes. That's no surprise considering he's the highest-paid actor on Forbes' 2018 Highest-Paid Celebrities list.
Kylie Jenner, the youngest person on Forbes' America's Richest Self-Made Women list, isn't far behind Clooney, with hourly earnings of $19,006. That means Jenner makes the current median US salary of $45,552, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in just 2.38 hours.
Ellen DeGeneres, Lebron James, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé are the only people on the list to earn four figures an hour - but that's still way more than most people make in one month alone. The first three earn between $9,000 and $10,000 an hour, with Beyoncé coming in last with hourly earnings of $6,849.