One common reason for the high rate of departures is amazon's unusual compensation structure. Amazon caps salaries for its white-collar workers at around 160000 then adds stock grants that gradually vest in steadily increasing chunks over a four-year period. All told, new hires can walk away with about $300,000.
In the early days, this was a good deal. Amazon grew from a tiny online bookseller to an online superstore and one of the most valuable companies on the planet in a few short years. But the high salaries, the stock grants, and the generous health care benefits are all perks that are hard to justify when a business is growing at a slower pace.
"If you're a senior person, you get a lot of equity, but you're also getting a much lower salary," says Andrew Challenger, vice president of