Tech company’s corporate employees could lose 50% of pay in 2023
Amazon’s corporate employees will make less money in 2023, people close to the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Shares of the world’s largest online retailer dropped roughly 36% over the last year, shaking up Amazon’s stock-heavy compensation plan while pulling employee pay much lower than target compensation levels.
According to the report, Amazon pays its corporate employees a large chunk of their annual salaries in restricted stock units, but 2022’s stock performance will mean salaries will slip between 15% and 50% lower this year.
Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst for OANDA, told FOX Business, “I struggle to see a company like Amazon not bouncing back from a decline of this magnitude.”
“Sentiment towards tech stocks takes a little longer to settle, but things should become much clearer over the next few months in respect to the economy and interest rates, at which point attitude towards tech could be very different,” he added.
Typically, Amazon offers less base-pay compensation to employees than its contemporaries like Google, Apple and Microsoft, but the retailer has made up the difference with stock awards that vest over several years.
Despite the near 40% dip in share price the last 12 months, Amazon is rallying in 2023, moving approximately 13% higher year-to-date, and around 3.25% into green territory the last quarter.
The technology-weighted Nasdaq Composite index is down 5% year-to-date.
Amazon reported 2022 results earlier this month.
The company’s net sales increased 9% to $514.0 billion in 2022. Excluding a $15.5 billion unfavorable impact from foreign currency, net sales increased 13% compared with 2021.
The net loss was $2.7 billion in 2022, or $0.27 per diluted share, compared with net income of $33.4 billion, or $3.24 per diluted share, in 2021.