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Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

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Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#241

Post by boren_ave11 »

duaneb wrote: post #203
boren_ave11 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you taking stock into consideration? At current price, 104 shares of AMZN equals $57,408 which puts my total 2016 pay at $130,408.

You get stock annually? Otherwise, you have to vest that over several years, severely reducing your annual. AND you're locked in for years just to cash out at maximum value. Unless you get that kind of equity yearly—which is crazy, and brings up dilution questions—you're better off taking a higher salary and investing as much as possible. But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gain…

>>You get stock annually?

At my annual review last year I received more stock along with a pay increase. So, thus far, yes.

>>But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gains tax for the first 12 months of holding it leads to a 2016 pay of.... just your salary.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm not following.

>>Oh, and you get equity every else in addition to that nice pay, and they don't strap your pager to your face.

What do you suggest I do?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#242

Post by weaksauce »

your pay is probably fairly unique since you listed it down to the stocks allocated and per year performance. I have to imagine that the list that includes all the attributes that you have is a fairly short list(probably just you).

just a word of caution if you do fear retaliation at all. might want to fuzz the numbers a touch.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#243

Post by boren_ave11 »

rgbrgb wrote: post #40
boren_ave11 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mentioned this below, but I don't think location matters because Amazon doesn't provide cost of living adjustments. Location obviously matters from the individual's perspective, but from the company perspective it isn't factored into compensation.

Yeah they do. I was offered a job after a summer internship but told them I'd only work in California -- after first declining, they offered me a position in SF the next day. When I arrived in SF to start there was ~12% added to my salary for cost of living adjustment over Seattle.

Perhaps they do for SF, given how high cost of living is there. I was told that cost of living increases are not offered, but maybe they were only referring to Seattle?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#244

Post by bethling »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #15
doseofreality wrote: post #9

Stating which location you are in would be important for salary comparison purposes.

Actually not in this case, as Amazon doesn't provide cost of living adjustments. Location isn't factored into pay amount.

That's not completely true. Amazon's offers/pay isn't tied to the cost of living of an area, but to the cost of labor in that area. When I had an engineer transfer from Seattle to San Francisco there was an adjustment.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#245

Post by dguaraglia »

asdfologist wrote: post #183
dguaraglia wrote: post #156

On a related note, someone at Google started a spreadsheet about a year ago where people could post (anonymously or not) their salary and a few more interesting datapoints (gender, age, location, etc.) I'm not sure whether the spreadsheet did anything to highlight gender/ethnicity/visa-status disparities (the biggest disparities I remember seeing were based on location, but that's understandable) but it was a great t…

I wouldn't praise Google for that, considering they actively participated in suppressing tech workers' wages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

Can't I praise one thing without necessarily agreeing with another?

I'm not saying Google is this shining company without a single flaw, but I'm definitely impressed with the way they seem to take their employees as adults that have strong opinions that need to be addressed.

Far from trying to apologize for anyone related to that lawsuit, but in my opinion what happened was a set of people thought they could get away with certain stuff because "everyone in the industry is doing it". Kind of the same with making people sign NDAs which are, for all practical purposes, unenforceable in California. They tried it, got tested in court, failed miserably. Good for us, bad for them.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#246

Post by mason55 »

vox_mollis wrote: post #193
tdicola wrote: post #63

IMHO you're being underpaid quite a bit with that base salary in the Seattle area. Time to start interviewing at Microsoft, Google, etc. Those companies usually start fresh out of college developers with a base pay a bit over $100k, then bonuses, stock awards, etc. on top.

Only on HN are these incredible compensation packages considered "underpaid". In the real world (outside FaceGoogAmaWallstreet), the story for developers is quite different.

> In the real world (outside FaceGoogAmaWallstreet), the story for developers is quite different.

This package would be underpaid for pretty much any pure tech company on a coast.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#247

Post by delecti »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #15
doseofreality wrote: post #9

Stating which location you are in would be important for salary comparison purposes.

Actually not in this case, as Amazon doesn't provide cost of living adjustments. Location isn't factored into pay amount.

Are you sure about that? I have at least three anecdotes that seem to directly contradict that claim, and while I realize the plural of anecdote isn't data, but it's still enough to make me skeptical of your claim.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#248

Post by cthalupa »

nilkn wrote: post #224
vox_mollis wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only on HN are these incredible compensation packages considered "underpaid". In the real world (outside FaceGoogAmaWallstreet), the story for developers is quite different.

In general I'd agree with you, but a ~$70k salary really is not that high for a decent developer with two years of experience, even with a signing bonus and stock options. I'm not in a major tech hub. Keep in mind also that Amazon is not some tiny startup strapped for cash. It's a big player in the industry and their hiring standards are rigorous.

Amazon offers RSUs, not stock options. Once they vest, they are yours without having had to purchase them.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#249

Post by dguaraglia »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #181
dguaraglia wrote: post #156

On a related note, someone at Google started a spreadsheet about a year ago where people could post (anonymously or not) their salary and a few more interesting datapoints (gender, age, location, etc.) I'm not sure whether the spreadsheet did anything to highlight gender/ethnicity/visa-status disparities (the biggest disparities I remember seeing were based on location, but that's understandable) but it was a great t…

> I have to praise Google for the way the situation was handled: the company didn't force the spreadsheet to be taken down (in fact, it's still up as I write this), nobody that I know of was fired for it and it generated a healthy amount of internal discussion. After hearing some stories from the Amazon counter part, I wouldn't expect the reaction to be the same. Taking action against this would've been a violation o…

Well you know how that goes. It's not like that has stopped companies from firing people in the past. This is an "at will" employment state, so if they really wanted to fire people they could've made any excuse up and fire them. Actually, they wouldn't even need to make anything up.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#250

Post by rgbrgb »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #243
rgbrgb wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah they do. I was offered a job after a summer internship but told them I'd only work in California -- after first declining, they offered me a position in SF the next day. When I arrived in SF to start there was ~12% added to my salary for cost of living adjustment over Seattle.

Perhaps they do for SF, given how high cost of living is there. I was told that cost of living increases are not offered, but maybe they were only referring to Seattle?

Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise to me on my first day.
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