As the world economy struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic and people across the world face financial hardships, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and the world’s third-richest human being, continues to thrive.

According to Comparisum, a company that allows businesses to compare different products, Bezos is on pace to become the world’s first trillionaire, reports say.

Their calculations say if Amazon continues at the rate of growth it’s seeing, Bezos, who Forbes lists as currently having over $143 billion, will reach the be the first member of the four comma club by the year 2026.

As the news spread, it drew severe backlash on social media from people who point out the financial disparity between the world’s richest individuals and the majority of us who are struggling to make ends meet as unemployment continues to be on the rise.

Bezos’ trek to a trillion comes as his company faces criticisms of how it’s treating its workforce.

Protestors organized as recently as May 1st to express dissatisfaction over “continuing failure to provide adequate protection in the workplace,” news reports say.

Amazon responded to the protests with a released statement claiming they are doing everything to provide safe working conditions for their employees:

“Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to respond proactively, ensuring we can continue to serve communities while taking care of our associates and teams. We have also implemented proactive measures at our facilities to protect employees including increased cleaning at all facilities, maintaining social distance in our sites, and adding distance between drivers and customers when making deliveries.”

The news of Bezos’ fortunate influx of money also follows a recent announcement that Amazon would be ending wage increases and double overtime pay next month.

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