Amazon giveth; Amazon taketh away

[miniroller]

Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away.

The company is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees. But tucked away in the announcement was the fact that Amazon will phase out its bonus and stock award programs for hourly workers.
Amazon eliminates bonuses and stock awards for hourly workers
www.cnn.com/2018/10/04/business/amazon-minimum-wage-bonus/index.html
😡😡😡 C’mon man- can’t we just have one piece of really big good news that is actually GOOD & True?!
Didn’t read the fine print before singing Amazon’s praises, did ya Bern?!
(I know, I know, nobody else did, either- I just hate Bernie Sanders😌)

[tealblue]

It did say the bump in salaries is more than the loss of bonus/etc. and getting this money on a regular paycheck is much better for the employees rather than getting a larger chunk once a year or once a quarters. It will make daily living a little less tight. So overall, positive but not as positive as it could be.

However, corporations are so focused on shareholders/growth/meeting earnings projections and not cutting salaries/bonuses at the top that it frustrates me that they can’t think about the little people while they roll around on their pile of cash.

[just]

I didn’t think it was tucked away. It was in every article I read and as PP mentioned they said part of their motivation was because those workers needed the more regular stability of an increased wage than the future possibility (with many restrictions) of the stock income.

Yes it would have been better if they had left that in place too, but I think they were pretty up front about it.

[aliciaflorrick]

I would much prefer the raise to bonuses especially for the long term. Bonuses are at times used to placate. The base wage increase can be more valuable with incremental raises.

[miniroller]

I definitely agree aliciaflorrick that an hourly rate increase vs. bonuses is almost undoubtedly the best for employees! (& therefore, what I think we’d all prefer)
I obviously missed the discussion re: the take-away of other benefits that Amazon was using to afford the hourly rate increase, & naively thought that with so much applause & celebration toward this move, they weren’t outwardly notifying the negation of bonuses.
DOH, my bad for falling for the Tweet & it’s damn clever wording... Sorry 😐

[flex]

Oct 4, 2018 8:47:18 GMT -5 aliciaflorrick said:

I would much prefer the raise to bonuses especially for the long term. Bonuses are at times used to placate. The base wage increase can be more valuable with incremental raises.

Exactly!    Raises will be cumulative-bonuses aren't.  As a union rep, I always sought to keep away from bonuses because they're not really a "bonus" in the long run.

[WOT?*]

Oct 4, 2018 8:47:18 GMT -5 aliciaflorrick said:

I would much prefer the raise to bonuses especially for the long term. Bonuses are at times used to placate. The base wage increase can be more valuable with incremental raises.

My son was happy with his surprise bonus at work thanks to the Trump tax break. Until I mentioned to him it was only a thousand dollars in a one-time event and if they'd increased wages instead he would have made that thousand dollars over many times. :lightbulb

[goldengirlz]

Raises are better than bonuses for all the reasons mentioned. I’ll also add that for a lower-income worker, having that additional money today in your paycheck is better than having it tied up in RSUs, which take a long time to vest.

That said, I understand why it feels icky. So much of the upside of working in tech is in stock-based compensation. Amazon stock has more than doubled in value in the past year alone, and AMZN is one of the coveted FAANG shares (which include Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google).

Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world. Obviously it should pay workers a living wage. But I don’t understand why it can’t offer both?