Amazon's Minimum Wage Hike Comes With Cuts To Other Compensation



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Managers at an Amazon fulfillment center probably thought they would be a leader when they explained the company's new pay scheme to employees on Tuesday.

Instead, some people turned angry, thinking their take-home pay would go down.

The world's largest online retailer announced Tuesday that starting in November, all its workers would receive at least $ 15 per hour – a key demand of labor advocates and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Who had been trashing the company for its pay practices all year.

Purpose The purpose of this policy is to provide compensation to help pay for the new wage floor in its fulfillment centers. These changes include getting rid of what is known as the "variable compensation program," or VCP, which is based on a worker's attendance and his facility's production level, and eliminates a stock allotment program for certain employees.

"You guys are taking away VCP!" Shouted one worker during a Q & A session following a presentation about the raises. HuffPost obtained a secretly recorded video of the presentation from a source who said the video is from a facility in Arizona.

Speaking into a microphone, a manager tried to assure the roomful of workers that everyone would be better off.

"Please, please understand, you will see a benefit from this … Please be patient, "the manager urged as workers talked over him.

An Amazon spokesperson said in an email that despite the cuts to the bonus and stock programs, all hourly workers would still come out ahead.

"The significant increase in hourly cash wages more than compensation for the phase out of incentive pay [restricted stock units], "The spokesperson wrote. "We can confirm that all of these operations will increase their total compensation as a result of this announcement."

Workers already get more than $ 15 per hour will be receiving dollar raises so everyone sees some kind of hourly pay hike. But many of those workers told HuffPost they have a hard time seeing how they will pay up, considering the other changes.

I do not come out ahead. It seems like the same pile of money, they're just moving it around.
Amazon employee

One Amazon fulfillment center worker said he pulled down around $ 2,000 in the variable compensation program over the course of a year. Losing that money, he said, would basically be worthy of the dollar-per-hour raise he's expecting through the new program. (A 40-hour workweek translates to 2080 hours per year.)

The suspects will have an annual take-home pay than before.

"I do not come out ahead," said the employee, who is called to speak freely. "It seems like the same pile of money, they're just moving it around."

An employee in Florida said he was glad to get a raise, but that they would lose out.

"Associates are torn," he said.

The worker said the company was one of the employees of the company, who was working for the company for a year, with the stock vesting. One share of Amazon's stock as of Wednesday afternoon is worth nearly $ 2,000.

The worker said the VCP program had amounted to 8 percent of his pay each month.

The tradeoff should be a good thing for all. As in many workplaces, a lot of Amazon workers do not stick around long enough for their stock to vest, making it a profit only on paper. In a high-turnover environment, workers might prefer cash wages to stock, depending on the latter's value.

"The net effect of this change is much greater than that of compensation," said the company. press release Tuesday.

Amazon Sanders, who said it was a disgrace that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos – the world's richest man, according to Forbes – paid his workers food stamps.

Sanders pilloried Bezos in interviews and even in legislation, introducing a bill called The Stop BEZOS Act.

The minimum wage announcement brought by Amazon and Bezos glowing news coverage and even the pleasures of Vermont's most famous democratic socialist.

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