Ex Amazonian but I was an SDE1 ~1 year of experience before joining. I worked in Seattle
Salary: $100k Bonus: $25k Stock: I forget but it was not much
Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
131–140 of 717 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also FWIW most states are at-will employment, and can fire you for no reason
I don't think employees in (most?) at-will states can be terminated for violating pay secrecy rules. (I think the only state with a meaningful divergence from at-will is Montana).
A company does not have to give reason to fire in an at-will state. If they don't say 'we fired you because you were discussing pay', then there is no means to prove that was the case.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#133You're not getting "ripped off" by having a base salary of 125K USD (with benefits and equity) fresh out of college. Tell you what, with a Bachelor's in Chemistry (in my year 176 people started, only 42 finished the degree so it's not a free lunch) I can expect to make between 40K and 60K CAD out of college and pay higher taxes than in the US. With a master's that I'm working towards, I'd be on the upper end of that…
To be fair, soft. eng. salaries in canada are much lower as well (even without taking the exchange rate into account).
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#134I hope this takes off. I always thought it was weird hiding how much you make -- this only helps employers, and not employees.
I am not sure whether keeping salaries confidential is good for the employer, employee, neither, or both, but you are stating what appears to be the most common belief. Different people have different preferences, and some managers probably have mistaken beliefs about what is good for them and their employees.
Yes, people seem sure it only benefits the employer but I have a feeling others benefit from it too. There have been times when I didn't really want my coworkers to know what I made.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#135You're getting screwed, big time. Quit now. Source: I was hired at Amazon as an SDE1 in 2004 at a base salary of $85,000.
Are you taking stock into consideration? When stock is included, my total compensation for 2016 comes to $130K.
Are you still at Amazon? If so, what is your current salary?
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah that helps, but then the question is do you really want to work somewhere that directly ties your compensation to the company's share price? If Amazon has a few bad quarters and you lose 20% of your yearly income that's a major deal. In Seattle you probably want to be making around $120-160k/yr to live a solid middle class life, afford a house, etc. I would still look around at MS, Google, etc. where they give y…
I find tying my income to stock highly motivating :)
If you're an executive pulling in over $500k, sure stock should absolutely be compensation and motivation. If you're rank and file and need $120k/yr to even afford to live, have kids, save for retirement, etc. in the area, then no stock should absolutely not be the primary means of compensation.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah that helps, but then the question is do you really want to work somewhere that directly ties your compensation to the company's share price? If Amazon has a few bad quarters and you lose 20% of your yearly income that's a major deal. In Seattle you probably want to be making around $120-160k/yr to live a solid middle class life, afford a house, etc. I would still look around at MS, Google, etc. where they give y…
I find tying my income to stock highly motivating :)
I don't see why it would be more motivating than just getting the current cash value of the stock, in a situation like Amazon's where you _maybe do, maybe don't_ really influence the stock price. Are you saying you write such influential code that you think you will manage to tip things in your favor on such a grand scale?
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#138Ieee FML this has been a depressing read. Is anyone else realizing they are severely underpaid? Passes the virtual whiskey
I'm reading it thinking, "Hmm, do I really hate working for other people that much?" I've run my own companies since I was in my early 20s, and have never taken on more than contract work for others. But, I've very rarely been able to pay myself as much as even modest developer or IT salaries at big companies in major cities.
But, that may mean I just need to stop trying to make a living out of Open Source software. ~20 years of it might be a sign it's time to try some other approach.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#139HR can find you based on the numbers you gave if you don't fuzz them a little bit.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#140IMHO 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.
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.
Doesn't matter, my friend who got an offer from Amazon fresh out of school back in 2008 was offered 80k a year. These days total comp for senior software engineers at Amazon is > 200k a year total.