Sinegal's involvement in Obama's reelection effort didn't end there. And that's why I'm here tonight supporting President Obama.' Business needs a president who has covered the backs of businesses, a president who understands what the private sector needs to succeed, a president who takes the long view and makes the tough decisions. 'Some of my friends in corporate America say that they need a government that gets off the backs of businesses, and that's why they're supporting the opposition with donations of hundreds of millions of dollars,' Sinegal said, 'but I think they've got it all wrong. Sinegal made a speech in support of President Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. The Post described the CEO's office as a 'tiny alcove without a door the furnishings are literally as fancy as folding chairs,' and said that Sinegal even answered his own phone instead of employing a secretary to do it.ДЇormer Vice President Joe Biden poses with his Costco card and Jim Sinegal (right) at a Costco store in Washington, DC, in 2012. Sinegal also wears clothes from Costco's Kirkland brand and is 'obsessed' with Kirkland products, he told students during a speech at San Diego State University in 2019.Д¬ostco's office space itselfВ also reflected Sinegal's modesty. Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong.' 'I just think that if you're going to try to run an organization that's very cost-conscious, then you can't have those disparities. 'I've been very well rewarded,' Sinegal told The Times about his salary. By 2018, that stake was worth $263.2вЂ‰million, The Seattle Times reported. Sinegal had a net worth of more than $120 million in 2005 largely due to his stake in the warehouse retailer, according to The New York Times. The median Fortune 100 CEO brought home $9.3 million, however.Д®ven with a smaller than average compensation package, Sinegal 'no doubt has become wealthy through Costco,' The Post reported. In 2010, Sinegal earned a total of $3.5 million once his stock options were factored in, per The Post. Sinegal took a $350,000 salary during his tenure at Costco - far below the industry standard $1 million for Fortune 100 CEOs at the time, according to The Washington Post. He prevented Costco from marking up the prices of its inventory more than 14% or 15% over its cost to the store, even if shoppers were accustomed to paying more elsewhere, The New York Times reported.Д¬ostco CEO Jim Sinegal smiles at a reopening of a Costco store in Redwood City, California in October 2009. Sinegal wasn't just passionate about saving the company money. Sinegal also pioneered several of Costco's signature methods of keeping costs low, including its no-frills retail spaces, limited inventory, and non-existent advertising, per The New York Times. 'This is not altruistic,' Sinegal told The New York Times in 2005 about Costco's wages and benefits plans, which the paper called generous.В 'This is good business.' Sinegal not only reimbursed employees for the extra 2%, but added stock directly into their 401ks so it wouldn't be taxed, according to The Washington Post. Washington Post's Jena McGregor wrote ahead of Sinegal's retirement in 2011 that it was 'hard to imagine anyone with less pretense, more discipline or more integrity leading a major corporation today.'ДЄn often retold story about Sinegal depicts the former CEO discovering that Costco paid 88% of employee's health care expenses, just short of the 90% the company had previously committed to. He eventually rose to become the company's executive vice president for merchandising, before leaving Fed-Mart alongside its founder Sol Price (who was ousted after selling the company to a German retailer) to launch another warehouse store called Price Club in 1976 that only sold memberships to small businesses, per The Times.ДЄccording to Costco's website, Sinegal served as Price Club's executive vice-president of merchandising, distribution, and marketing and 'was instrumental in fine-tuning the merchandise and marketing strategies.'Д¬ostco cofounder and former CEO Jim Sinegal speaks in 2005. Sinegal went on to earn a bachelor's degree from San Diego State University in 1959, while still working at Fed-Mart as a bagger. When Sinegal was 18, he took on what he thought would be a one-day job unloading mattresses at Fed-Mart, one of America's first warehouse retailers, according to The Times. His father was a coal miner and a steelworker, The New York Times reported. Sinegal was born into a working class family in Pittsburgh.

Costco cofounder and former CEO Jim Sinegal.

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