Most people know how much celebrities make now, but almost no one knows how much they earned before fame.
For the first time, we dive into the estimated salaries of major celebrities before they rose to fame—and explore how long it would have taken them to accumulate their current wealth. From Hollywood legends and politicians to pop culture icons, we reveal the financial journeys that led them to stardom in a new Celebrity Index.
Celebrity Grind-To-Glory Index
| Celebrity | Pre Fame Salary (USD) | Pre Fame Salary (GBP) | Previous Job | Current Net Worth (USD) | Estimated Lifetimes Working Their Old Jobs To Earn Their Current Value | Lifetimes for Average American Worker To Earn Their Current Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Styles | $2,942 | £2,271 | Bakery Worker | $120 M | 886 Lifetimes | 40 Lifetimes |
| Adele | $8,195 | £6,500 | Cafe Worker | $220 M | 584 Lifetimes | 72 Lifetimes |
| Post Malone | $19,968 | £15,463 | Chicken Express Employee | $50 M | 54 Lifetimes | 16 Lifetimes |
| Margot Robbie | $22,950 | £17,774 | Subway Sandwich Artist | $60 M | 57 Lifetimes | 20 Lifetimes |
| Rachel McAdams | $24,298 | £18,818 | Mcdonalds Worker | $25 M | 22 Lifetimes | 8 Lifetimes |
| Jeff Bezos | $24,298 | £18,818 | Mcdonalds Worker | $250.1 B | 223,761 Lifetimes | 82,378 Lifetimes |
| Zendaya | $25,000 | £19,361 | Child Model | $30 M | 26 Lifetimes | 10 Lifetimes |
| Barack Obama | $27,056 | £20,950 | Ice Cream Scooper | $70 M | 56 Lifetimes | 10 Lifetimes |
| Beyonce | $29,708 | £23,004 | Hair Salon Assistant | $760 M | 556 Lifetimes | 250 Lifetimes |
| Stormzy | $29,992 | £23,822 | Oil Refinery | $34 M | 24 Lifetimes | 11 Lifetimes |
| Brad Pitt | $30,442 | £23,573 | Chicken Shop Promoter | $400 M | 286 Lifetimes | 132 Lifetimes |
| JK Rowling | $31,186 | £24,768 | Secretary | $1 B | 697 Lifetimes | 329 Lifetimes |
| Kayne West | $33,000 | £25,553 | Gap Employee | $400 M | 263 Lifetimes | 131 Lifetimes |
| Elon Musk | $33,696 | £26,092 | Boiler Room Cleaner | $378.8 B | 244,371 Lifetimes | 124,762 Lifetimes |
| Dwayne Johnson | $35,663 | £27,302 | Pot Washer | $800 M | 493 Lifetimes | 264 Lifetimes |
| Tyler the Creator | $35,663 | £27,616 | Starbucks Employee | $30 M | 18 Lifetimes | 10 Lifetimes |
| Jennifer Aniston | $49,338 | £38,205 | Waitress | $320 M | 140 Lifetimes | 105 Lifetimes |
| Tom Cruise | $49,338 | £38,205 | Waitor | $600 M | 264 Lifetimes | 198 Lifetimes |
| Lewis Capaldi | $52,237 | £41,433 | Pub Singer | $38 M | 16 Lifetimes | 13 Lifetimes |
| Ed Sheeran | $56,010 | £44,425 | Street Busker | $200 M | 77 Lifetimes | 66 Lifetimes |
Note: This is for entertainment purposes only and salaries are estimates.
Key Findings:
- Harry Styles had the lowest pre-fame salary—just $2,942 per year—before becoming one of the most famous artists on the planet. However, he was only 16 at the time and was on minimum wage in England, working at a bakery in Cheshire.
- Ed Sheeran, another incredibly famous artist, earned the most before fame—$56,010 per year busking on the streets.
- Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world, cleaned boiler rooms for $33,696 a year—he’d have to work more than 11 million years at that job to match his net worth today.
- Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, would need to flip over 223 thousand lifetimes worth of McDonald’s Patties at his previous job at the fast food chain to accumulate his current net worth of $250.1 Billion.
- Before becoming famous, most celebrities earned at least 50% less than the current average US salary ($66,621).
- The average earning American would need to work from 16 to 62 at least 10 times over to achieve the wealth of even the least wealthy celebrities on the list, e.g., Tyler The Creator, and Zendaya.
Popular Celebrity Highlights
Elon Musk
Previous role: Boiler room cleaner
Previous salary: $33,696 per year
Current Net Worth: $378.8 Billion
Did you know? If the average worker earns $66K annually, it would take them 5.7 million years to reach Musk’s wealth. If you started working 5.7 million years ago, you’d have to live through the entire evolution of modern humans.
If Musk had never pursued his career in technology, it would have taken him a staggering 244 thousand lifetimes to achieve his current wealth, assuming he maintained his old salary.
Jeff Bezos
Previous Role: McDonald’s Worker
Previous Salary: $24,298 per year
Current Net Worth: $250.1 Billion
Did you know? If the average worker earns $66K per year, it would take them 3.79 million years to reach Jeff Bezos’ wealth. That’s even longer than between now and when the first Genus, Homo, appeared.
If Bezos had never pursued his career in e-commerce, he would have needed to work 223,761 lifetimes at his old job at McDonalds to match his current fortune.
Beyonce
Previous role: Hair Salon Assistant
Previous salary: $29,708 per year
Current Net Worth: $760 Million
Did you know? To reach Beyoncé’s $760 million fortune, an average worker would need to work for 11,515 years—longer than human civilization itself. You’d have worked through the rise and fall of Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, and the Internet age.
If Beyonce never chased her career in music, she would have needed to work 556 lifetimes at her Mom’s salon to be worth what she is today.
Harry Styles
Previous role: Bakery worker
Previous salary: $2,942 per year / £3.64/hour
Current Net Worth: $120 Million
Did you know? If the average worker earns $66K per year, it would take them 1,818 years to match Harry Styles’ wealth. That’s longer than the entire history of the English language.
If Styles had never auditioned for the X Factor back in 2010, he would have needed to work 886 lifetimes at his old job at a bakery in England to earn his current net worth. However, his previous salary was based on his minimum wage at 16, which would naturally be expected to increase with age and experience.
Kanye West
Previous role: Gap Employee
Previous salary: $33,000 per year
Current Net Worth: $400 Million
Did you know? To earn Kanye West’s $400 million net worth, an average worker would need to work for 6,061 years. That’s over 100x longer than the entire history of rap music.
If Kanye hadn’t embarked on his successful music career, he would have had to work 263 lifetimes at Gap to earn his current net worth.
Methodology
- Data Collection
BetMGM Casino analyzed multiple online sources, including celebrity interviews and articles from reputable sources, to determine the previous jobs held by celebrities before they became famous.
Once their past job roles were identified, salary estimates were obtained using job listing sites such as Indeed US, UK and Glassdoor. The average salary for each role was applied to the respective celebrity. British celebrities’ GBP earnings were converted into USD based on the exchange rate.
- Salary Calculation Adjustments
- If an interview or article provided accurate hourly or daily earnings, we used that information to calculate an estimated annual salary based on full-time employment (e.g., Elon Musk and Adele).
- The default assumption was that all celebrities worked full-time hours unless stated otherwise in an interview or online source.
- Part-time hours were applied to certain celebrities by default due to the nature and timing of their previous jobs (e.g., Harry Styles, Post Malone, Barack Obama, and Lewis Capaldi).
- Estimating Celebrity Working Lifetimes to Earn Their Current Net Worth
To determine how many working lifetimes a celebrity would need to earn their current net worth if they remained in their previous jobs, we used the following formula:
Previous annual salary * 46 = X
Net Worth / X = Estimated celebrity working lifetimes
(Where 46 represents the estimated number of working years from ages 16-62.)
- Comparing to the Average American Worker
To calculate how many working lifetimes the average American would need to reach each celebrity’s net worth, we used this formula:
Networth / $66,000 * 46 = Average working American lifetimes.
($66,000 represents the estimated median U.S. salary based on national labor data.)
(Where 46 represents the estimated working years from ages 16-62.)
- Net Worth Data
Celebrity net worth estimates were obtained from reputable sources such as Forbes and CelebrityNetWorth.com.
All Sources:
ABCNews, AOL.com, Backstage.com, Businessinsider.com, Capitalxtra.com, Celebritynetworth.com, Dailyrecord.co.uk, Delish.com, Forbes, Glamour.com, Glasgowlive.co.uk, Glassdoor, Gov.UK, Harpersbazaar.com, Headspacegroup.co.uk, IMDB.com, Indeed.com, Londonmuseum.org, Mensjournal.com, Nasdaq.com, Nationalworkexperienceweek.co.uk, Ndtv.com, Nme.com, Salaryexpert, Secretmanchester.com, SI.com, Sky News, Thesalarycalculator.co.uk, Thesun.co.uk, Wikipedia.org, Womanandhome.com.
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