Amazon’s falling stock price means some corporate employees will see wage packets with some losing half.
Amazon pays some corporate (non-warehouse) employees “a large chunk” of their annual salaries in restricted stock units.
Because the company’s share price has taken a 35 per cent tumble this year, employees’ pay will be between 15 per cent and 50 per cent lower than Amazon’s projected targets.
Amazon’s stock price has fallen from about $150 per share in February 2022 to $97 this week.
Amazon pays staff in restricted stock units on the assumption that its stock will climb about 15 per cent every year, sources said. That would put Amazon’s expected share price at around $170 this year.
Amazon said, “Our compensation model is intended to encourage employees to think like owners, which is why it connects total compensation to the company’s long-term performance.
“That model comes with some year-to-year upside and risk because the stock price can fluctuate, but historically at Amazon, it’s had a history of working out very well for people who’ve taken a long-term view.”
The faltering global economy has been having a tough effect on Amazon as a whole. It announced plans to lay off 18,000 employees last month, and this week said employees would have to come into the office at least three days a week from May, which has been about as popular as you would expect.
And Amazon isn’t alone. Other tech firms have struggled to make gains in the last 12 months, with many seeing falling stock prices – Meta notably lost two-thirds of its value last year – and announcing sweeping layoffs.
Many tech giants say they over-hired in the pandemic and are going through a period of “re-alignment” now that the market has taken a tumble. Firms that have announced layoffs include Microsoft, Google, IBM, SAP, HP, Arm, Twilio, Citrix, Salesforce and PayPal.
