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Founder Salary Reality Check Calculator

Find out instantly whether you are paying yourself in the fair-market band for a DTC founder at your revenue, hiding profit on your own P&L, or stockpiling a QofE problem at exit.

Built on the May 2024 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release for Chief Executive (national mean $269,630, median $213,990) and General/Operations Manager (national mean $134,940), plus the Summary Compensation Tables for 7 small-cap public DTC CEOs at $254M-$621M revenue (Allbirds, Honest, BARK, ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Lulu's, Vital Farms), plus the Kruze 2026 Startup CEO Salary Report, the Pilot Founder Salary Report 2025 (n=1,844), and the BDO 2025 Private Company Executive Compensation Survey (n=341).

No login. No email required to use the calculator. Your numbers stay in your browser. For the full benchmark write-up plus the QofE add-back math behind the output, see the full blog post and methodology.

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Are you in the band, hiding profit, or overpaying?

BLS OEWS 2024 plus 7 small-cap public DTC CEO proxies plus Kruze 2026 plus Pilot 2025 (n=1,844) plus BDO 2025. Updates live as you type.

v1 uses one band across verticals. v2 will personalize.

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Want the spreadsheet?

Make a copy of the Google Sheet version to model multiple revenue scenarios, edit the anchor multipliers, and share with your accountant. Same formulas, no browser required.

Copy the Google Sheet

Spreadsheet link will activate after the post ships. Same anchor logic as the calculator above.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I pay myself as a founder at $5M revenue?

The fair-market band sits roughly $130-180K with a $155K midpoint. That assumes you are the CEO, not still doing GM work. If you are functionally an operator-GM, anchor to the BLS general and operations manager band ($95-120K). Below $130K at $5M revenue and you are likely hiding profit on your own P&L.

What does BLS say a CEO earns?

BLS OEWS reports a national median of $213,990 and a mean of $269,630 for Chief Executives across all industries (May 2024 release). Retail trade (NAICS 44-45) drops to $243,120 mean. Use it as a floor, not a target.

How does my founder salary affect EBITDA at exit?

A $150K founder compensation add-back at a 5x EBITDA multiple (typical for sub-$50M DTC; 7x at $50-100M, 9x above $100M) shifts enterprise value by $750K to $1.35M. Underpaying inflates reported EBITDA but buyers normalize it during quality of earnings diligence. The cleanest path is to be in the band so the negotiation does not turn on this line.

Should I pay myself salary or distributions?

Run a fair-market salary through payroll for clean P&L, payroll-tax credit, and QofE defensibility. Take the rest as distributions if cash flow and entity type (S-corp or LLC) allow. What you do not want is a $0 salary with $400K in distributions: it triggers reasonable-compensation scrutiny.

Next Step

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