Amazon: Some Amazon employees may see up to 50% fall in their salaries this year – Times of India

Amazon’s shares have fallen by around 35% in the past year. And the steep fall is now likely to hit employees. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), employee salaries at Amazon can take a hit this year.
The report says that some Amazon corporate employees will be paid as much as 50% less than previously expected in 2023 because of the company’s falling stock price. The report says that salaries in 2023 are likely to be 15% to 50% lower than the estimations given to Amazon employees. Employees’ annual salaries are generally made up of cash compensation and awards of restricted stock units, however, as there’s been a 35% decline in Amazon’s stock this year, total compensation is set to drop sharply.
Stock units are issued to employees on the basis that the company’s share price will increase around 15% every year, sources told the Journal. The sources added that expectations were that the company’s share price would be around $170 this year, rather than the $97 where it currently trades.
In a statement sent to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson 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.”
Amazon stock not the only one
Amazon’s decreasing stock price reflects a wider economic slowdown affecting technology companies. Stocks of other technology companies including Google, Facebook, Intel and Microsoft too have seen a massive fall last year. Amazon has also cut back its hiring targets for its retail business.

Amazon announces back to office policy
Amazon recently asked employees to spend at least three days a week in the office. CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo on February 17 that he and the S-team, a tight-knit group of senior executives from almost all areas of Amazon’s business, decided at a meeting earlier this week that employees should be in the office “the majority of the time (at least three days per week).” Amazon plans to implement the change starting May 1.
“It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do that work some time to develop a plan,” Jassy said. “We know that it won’t be perfect at first, but the office experience will steadily improve over the coming months (and years) as our real estate and facilities teams smooth out the wrinkles, and ultimately keep evolving how we want our offices to be set up to capture the new ways we want to work.”