COMP NEWS – Amazon recently emailed its corporate employees that they were getting a compensation increase – then emailed them again to tell them they weren’t. Amazon informed its employees that a one-time bonus was “miscalculated” due to a software era.

Corporate employees at Amazon got emails about promotions and raises. Then they got emails saying the raises weren’t quite what they thought.

 

A one-time bonus that was part of their compensation package had been miscalculated due to a software error and would be lower than what they had been told, according to an email sent on Thursday and viewed by Insider.

 

The bonuses had initially been calculated using older, higher stock prices, according to Insider, and about 40% of promoted employees this quarter were affected by the error.

Amazon’s cut in expected compensation increases would upset any worker, but the issue will likely sting even more for employees of Silicon Valley who regularly express dissatisfaction with their existing pay.

Compensation has been a major issue across the tech sector this year as a strong labor market heats up competition for workers.

 

Earlier this year, Amazon announced its plan to double its maximum base salary to $350,000 to attract talent, something that workers at Google cited after the company’s annual internal survey revealed their dissatisfaction with pay. 

This year’s ‘Googlegeist’ survey, conducted in January,  found that just 53% of Google employees considered their pay competitive, down 5% from the year before, and 56% found their compensation ‘fair and equitable,’ down 8%. 

To read more about Amazon clawing back its compensation increases, click here.

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