Under Amour's CEO is paid the salary of a Walmart worker - but he's found another way to get rich

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank earns a salary of about $26,000 annually, which is about as much as a Walmart store employee.

That may seem shockingly low for the chief executive of an $8 billion company, but Plank has found some other ways to get rich.

Specifically, Plank owns more than 15% of the company's shares outstanding, which are valued at more than $1.3 billion, according to a company proxy released Thursday.

Additionally, businesses controlled by Plank are benefitting from more than $73 million that Under Armour has funneled to them in the last year.

The payments include $2.4 million to lease a jet and a $6,500-per-hour helicopter owned by one of Planks' companies, according to the proxy.

Under Armour also paid $70.3 million to one of Plank's companies last year for a piece of land his company owned near the clothing brand's headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Under Armour plans to use the land to expand its corporate headquarters. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the proxy.

Under Armour has plans to use a hotel owned by Plank and his brother, Scott Plank, for business purposes as well, the company said in the filing. The hotel, located in Baltimore, opened in March 2017.

"We have negotiated corporate rate discounts for use of the hotel with the management company, consistent with rates otherwise available for comparable hotels in the area," the company said.

For all the other transactions involving Plank's companies, Under Armour says it used an independent outside party to appraise the fair market value of the transaction. In other words, the company tried to make sure it wasn't paying more than it otherwise would, just to do business with Plank's companies.

Under Armour's business dealings with Plank's companies come to light as the company shares have been getting hammered, falling 30% since the beginning of the year following news that revenue growth contracted sharply in the most recent quarter after years of explosive gains.

The company's net revenue still rose about 12% in the fourth quarter to $1.31 billion, but that was its slowest sales growth in eight years. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.41 billion.